VAR saves Real in Amsterdam
Referee disallows Ajax goal over marginal offside as defending champions scrape through 2-1
AMSTERDAM:REAL Madrid needed a late winner from Marco Asensio and VAR’S debut in the Champions League to beat a spirited Ajax 2-1 in the first leg of the last 16.
Ajax have not beaten Madrid in 24 years and thought they were on their way at the Johan Cruyff Arena when Nicolas Tagliafico headed home after a Thibaut Courtois error.
But referee Damir Skomina judged Dusan Tadic to be offside upon review and Madrid showed no pity on their youthful opponents — Karim Benzema and Asensio scoring two precious away goals in the second half.
Hakim Ziyech’s equaliser at least keeps Ajax in touch heading into the second leg at the Santiago Bernabeu but Asensio’s 87thminute winner was a suckerpunch in a match the Dutch team had largely dominated.
Their ruled out opener will only add to the sense of what might have been and it was no surprise to see a cluster of red and white shirts surrounding the officials at the final whistle.
TECH TO REAL’S HELP
VAR has been introduced to the Champions League for the first time in this year’s knock-out stages and leaflets were distributed to the media before kick-off, one of the points explaining how reviews should only be for “clear and obvious mistakes”.
UEFA later tweeted Ajax’s goal was “correctly overturned for offside” but Tadic’s intervention on Courtois was minimal and it seemed generous to deem it enough for a call to be reversed.
“We can’t see the replay,” Madrid coach Santiago Solari said. “We have to be confident in what the referees say.”
“I saw it,” said Ajax’s Erik ten Hag. “In my opinion it was not offside and I don’t see it as a foul on the goalkeeper either.”
Still, there was more than an hour to play and Ajax were twice too easily undone on the counter-attack.
Frenkie de Jong, who will join Barcelona in the summer, and Matthijs de Ligt, who could follow him, were each dealt a lesson in the ruthlessness of top European football.
UEFA TO PROBE RAMOS BOOKING CLAIM
AMSTERDAM: UEFA has launched a disciplinary investigation that could rule Real Madrid captain Sergio Ramos out of a potential Champions League quarter-final, Marco Asensio did it against Ajax, Gareth Bale has done it twice while Mariano and Dani Ceballos have scored once each. In those 10 games, Madrid scored nine goals after the 75th minute. offside and interfering with play — standing in front of Thibaut Courtois at the exact moment Tagliafico got his header in. It was the correct decision technically, however without VAR the goal would have stood. first leg after he admitted getting booked on purpose in Wednesday’s 2-1 win at Ajax Amsterdam.
With Madrid 2-1 up in the last-16 first leg, Ramos was shown a yellow card in the 89th minute, his third booking of the European campaign which means he will be suspended from the second leg of the tie in Madrid on March 5.
Should Madrid progress to the quarter-finals, Ramos would then have a clean slate for the final stretch of Europe’s elite
competition, which his side have monopolised since 2016.
But in an extraordinary postmatch interview, Ramos said he intentionally got booked against Ajax, which breaks UEFA’S rules and is punishable with an extra
one-match suspension.
European soccer’s governing body UEFA said on Thursday that it had launched a disciplinary investigation “in connection with the statements made” by Ramos.