Controversial VAR call is a bitter blow for Rodgers
LEICESTER CITY boss Brendan Rodgers questioned VAR’s interpretation of Ademola Lookman’s disallowed goal as the Foxes could only pick up a point at Elland Road. The forward looked to have put the visitors ahead in the 67th minute when he tapped in at the back post after Jamie Vardy flicked on Youri Tielemans’ corner. However, what would have been Lookman’s first Premier League goal for Leicester was ruled out when VAR checked it back for offside. From the still image presented by VAR, the 24-year-old was clearly — albeit marginally — ahead of the last Leeds defender. Rodgers, though, wondered whether an error had been made as the offside line appeared to have been drawn after Vardy had made contact with the ball. ‘Where the line was drawn and on that image, the ball had already left Jamie Vardy’s head,’ said the ex-Celtic boss, whose side are stuck in 12th place. ‘The distance between the ball and his head was the distance of Lookman being offside. The question I asked was: “Why is it not on the still?”. I actually think they showed the wrong picture. ‘I later saw the image where Vards was making contact with it and Ade is offside. But I think the images that were presented with the lines showed the ball had already left Jamie’s head. ‘It was obviously tough to take. It is so tight. We have had a few VAR ones that have not gone our way and today it has not gone our way. But that was the decision and we have to respect that.’ Harvey Barnes equalised for Leicester just 73 seconds after Leeds had taken a 26th-minute lead through Raphinha’s free-kick. Straight from the restart, Vardy passed the ball back to Jonny Evans, whose long ball was flicked on by Boubakary Soumare into the path of Barnes. Taking one touch to control, another to cut inside Diego Llorente, he bent the ball into the far top corner past Illan Meslier. Marcelo Bielsa felt his Leeds side deserved to claim all three points after enjoying 18 shots at goal to Leicester’s nine. ‘We created double the amount of danger than them,’ he said. ‘We dominated a large part of the game. But even if we deserved to win, we didn’t manage to obtain it.’