Disallowed ‘winning’ Jesus goal ‘VAR it its best’

JAMIE Carragher says the decision by the video assistant referee to disallow Gabriel Jesus’ late ‘winner’ for Manchester City against Tottenham was “VAR at its best”.

Jesus’ goal against Tottenham was disallowed after a VAR review spotted the ball had deflected to him off the hand of City defender Aymeric Laporte.

Under changes to the laws of the game, which took effect from June 1, any use of the hand which leads to a goal or a goalscoring opportunity will be penalised, whether intentional or otherwise.

There was some criticism of the decision but former Liverpool defender Carragher believes the technology did its job.

“I think VAR has taken some unjust criticism,” Carragher said. “In some cases it has been absolutely fantastic and a massive success and that was evident in what happened in the last minute at Man City.

“VAR was brilliant on this. If people have got a problem, it is with the law. I think handball should be disallowed if the person scores with the hand, not sets one up. But it is there in law. So that is VAR at its best.

“It spots something that no one else has spotted, that’s what it’s there for. Also a lot of the players coming out and saying ‘What is this rule? What if it hits the defender, does it count?’

“The players don’t know what’s going on and that’s because when the referees come into a meeting as they do every year, the players are on their phones, they are not listening, they haven’t got a clue what the rules are. I was probably the same.”