Inside Stockley Park as VAR officials made horrendous Liverpool blunder
The fallout from VAR's "significant error" in Liverpool's loss at Tottenham has seemingly only just begun.
Luis Diaz thought his brilliance had put the ten-man Reds ahead in north London, finishing superbly after timing his run perfectly, or so he'd thought. The offside flag was raised and shortly after the game was back underway with both teams scoreless.
That would prove a pivotal moment in a clash that Tottenham would ultimately win 2-1, owing to a Joel Matip own goal in stoppage time. The implementation of offside has rarely come under the microscope in the way other decisions, like red cards and handballs, have.
Now though the spotlight is firmly on the process that led to Diaz having a perfectly good goal chalked off with human error firmly are the centre of the howler. We take a look at the series of events that unfolded in north London, which now has everyone talking.
Diaz scores
Liverpool, down a man after Curtis Jones' red card, which also came about because of VAR, were on the attack and Mohamed Salah played a ball through for Diaz. The Colombian was being marked by Pedro Porro, but it was Cristian Romero who may have been playing him onside.
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Luis Diaz thought he'd put Liverpool aheadInstead the assistant referee deemed that the Liverpool man had gone a split second too soon and raised the flag, although a check, as is protocol, would follow.
Lines drawn - but VAR looking for the wrong thing
Those watching on TV didn't get to see the lines, confirming that Diaz was offside, instead it just confirmed the check was complete, meaning the decision stood. Darren England at Stockley Park though thought the goal had been given and was therefore looking to prove the referee was right.
He saw that Diaz was onside and thought he was concurring with the official's decision but saying check complete. Instead he should've made it known that in fact those at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium were incorrect.
The goal is ruled out for offside despite no lines being drawn (Sky Sports)Game restarts
It took 40 seconds to go from Diaz hitting the back of the net to the game restarting with a free-kick. For any offside call that is unusually quick, but for one as tight as this it sent alarm bells ringing, even for those on Sky Sports commentary.
The apology
And so, as many suspected having seen the replay, Diaz was in fact onside and the PGMOL, the referees governing body, was forced to issue an apology - not for the first time this season. They confirmed that human error was at fault and they'd be conducting a review.
They said: "PGMOL acknowledge a significant human error occurred during the first half of Tottenham Hotspur v Liverpool. The goal by Luiz Diaz was disallowed for offside by the on-field team of match officials. This was a clear and obvious factual error and should have resulted in the goal being awarded through VAR intervention, however, the VAR failed to intervene. PGMOL will conduct a full review into the circumstances which led to the error."
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