In case you missed it, it is with a heavy heart that I have to announce that VAR is back. Tottenham Hotspur believed they had not only won Wednesday night’s Champions League game against Sporting thanks to a final 94th-minute goal from Harry Kane, a result that would have clinched their Champions League group and would have allowed them to fully rotate for their last game. in Marseille.
Instead, after five minutes of deliberation, VAR disallowed the goal because Harry Kane had a fingernail in an offside position, depending on when you stopped the camera and drew the pencil lines. Antonio Conte also received a red card following this decision. The game ended in a 1-1 draw, meaning Spurs will have to win or draw Marseille next week or they will bounce out of the Champions League.
And Conte? Oh, he’s BIG CRAZY. Here are his press conference comments, In totality.
“At the end because everyone entered the field and the referee decided to send me off. Only for that. I think there are times when you can maybe be a little smart to understand that you just disallowed a legal goal because the goal was legal. The ball is in front of Kane. And then the VAR.
“I repeat you know I’m not commenting on the referee’s decision but the VAR, this season I don’t know why between the Premier League and the Champions League we’re not so lucky. I don’t know not why so far we are also the only team that has repeated the penalty and every penalty i will see, if the goalkeeper moves in line, i see it a lot of the time i want to see the repetition of a penalty in the Premier League. I think we are not so lucky with VAR but I think they create a lot of damage.
“I would like to see if this type of decision you can make with a top team, in an important game, yeah I would like to see if VAR are so brave to make this decision. I repeat this unfair decision because the ball is in front of Kane. Sorry, but I’m really upset because sometimes you can accept this situation and sometimes I think it’s not good because I don’t see the honesty in this type of situation and when I see that, I get really, really upset.
“For the game, we played the first half with low intensity and Sporting deserved to stay 1-0 and at the end of the game after our second half, I think we deserved to get three points. Now for this decision we have to wait for the last game against Marseille and I repeat this decision, yeah creates big damage.
“I hope the club understands this and that in the right situation they also speak with the people they need to speak to because otherwise only the manager can speak. I think the club must be strong because I repeat this situation creates big, big damage. Now we don’t know what will happen next week. If we go out, I want to see.
Now, whether or not Kane is offside (debatable!) and whether or not Conte is right to be so upset about it is a bit beside the point – it’s that Conte is a good manager. It does not benefit him to be magnanimous on these kinds of decisions. What matters is that he communicates to his team that he has them back and provides proper motivation for Spurs to go out and win their next game.
And boy, do they need it. Spurs are now on a three-game winless streak, and they are heading to a Bournemouth side who have won in their last six games. I want this Spurs team to be angry. I want them to be motivated. I want them to remember what happened here and then come out to kick Bournemouth’s collective teeth.
There have been times throughout my Spurs fandom where Spurs have had a chip on their shoulder and turned that motivation into good results. Hopefully that happens here, starting on Saturday and continuing through Tuesday night in Marseille.
#Antonio #Conte #BIG #CRAZY