VAR’S MORE HARM THAN CHARM

DENMARK boss Age Hareide claims technology is removing the “charm” from the World Cup.

A controversial VAR-assisted penalty for Australia ensured that honours ended even at the Samara Arena.

Denmark are in the box seat but Australia can still reach the knockout stages after Mile Jedinak’s spot-kick cancelled out Christian Eriksen’s opener.

But the Danes were left frustrated they didn’t progress here after VAR again took centre-stage.

Yussuf Poulsen’s close-range handball was analysed before from GEORGE SCOTT Spanish ref Antonio Mateu Lahoz pointed to the spot – even though Hareide had no complaints.

Hareide said: “I believe it was a penalty. But the whole issue with VAR is there are people somewhere in Russia deciding to look at this situation because it looks like a penalty.

“There were other situations in the match where they should have stopped it to look at what actually happened.

“But they are not doing that, so who decides? Is it the referee on the pitch or someone watching in a dark room somewhere else?

“To me, it does remove a bit of the charm of football to have such a precise system.”

Eriksen was sending Denmark through after a fine seventhminute strike following Nicolai Jorgensen’s lay-off.

But the Socceroos hit back when Jedinak scored from the spot for the second successive game. Australia must now beat Peru and hope that France do the same to Denmark next Tuesday.

But Aussie coach Bert van Marwijk, who saw Aaron Mooy go close to a winner, is frustrated their hopes are out of their hands.

He said: “I feel we should have won. I honestly think that we’ve deserved four points from our first two games.

“It is just the last piece of the puzzle we are missing. Now we must concentrate on Peru. The rest, in terms of whether we can qualify, we cannot influence.”