Yahoo News Pep Guardiola: VAR should have ruled out crucial Spurs goal
Pep Guardiola felt Fernando Llorente’s decisive goal should have been disallowed for handball by VAR.
Llorente bundled the ball over the line to bring Tottenham level with Manchester City at 4-4 on aggregate (4-3 on the night), which was enough to see them through on away goals.
The strike was looked at by VAR, but after watching numerous replays the referee was confident the original decision was correct and stuck with it.
Although the final touch was off his hip, Guardiola felt it brushed his arm on the way through and should have been ruled out.
He had no complaints about Raheem Sterling’s stoppage-time strike being dramatically overturned by VAR though.
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“I support VAR but maybe from one angle Fernando Llorente’s goal is handball, maybe from the referee’s angle it is not,” Guardiola said.
On Sterling’s disallowed goal, he added: “I watched the action and the people from above decided it was offside.
“We missed a penalty in the first leg but I am so proud of the players and the fans. I have never heard noise like that since I have been in Manchester but football is unpredictable.”
He felt the defeat was ‘cruel’ but was quick to congratulate Spurs on their achievements.
“It is cruel but it is what it is and we have to accept it,” Guardiola said.
“After 20 minutes we were 3-2 up. In the second half we created a lot of chances and we scored the goals we needed.
“Unfortunately, it was a bad end to us so congratulations to Tottenham and good luck for the semi-finals.”
UNREAL NIGHT!! WE’RE IN THE SEMIS!! 💙💙#COYS
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Vincent Kompany felt that there were so many incidents over two legs that it was tough to complain, although did seem to suggest he did not feel Spurs deserved to go through.
“We were trying to outscore them, outgun them – we were successful in doing that,” he said.
“Over the course of two legs you look at the big incidents; penalty in the first-leg, disallowed goal and the handball goal, without complaining about it. [There were] so many crucial events.
“This result can be argued whether it was deserved or not, but fair play to Spurs for winning.”
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