Exactly!liquidfootball2 wrote: ↑15 Jul 2018, 23:58 Former referee Keith Hackett gives his verdict on those two extremely contentious first half goals
The VAR penalty - France's second
But no matter who makes the decision I am afraid to say the officials got this one badly wrong. To issue a sanction the referee must decide it was a “deliberate” handball, and there is no way that was the case here. Perisic’s hand is in a natural position and he had no time to react after the ball went past Blaise Matuidi.
That is obvious when you watch the incident in real-time, but Pitana was shown numerous slow-motion replays. Seeing an incident in slow-motion removes any context and makes it look worse than it was. I believe that only full-speed clips should be shown during a VAR review, and if that had been the case I don’t think the penalty would have been awarded. Pitana is a good, strong referee but I felt sorry for him as he was tied in knots by the system designed to help him.
The own goal - France's first
I also believe France’s opening goal should not have stood as it came from a free-kick awarded after a blatant act of simulation by Antoine Griezmann. I understand why Pitana was fooled but there must be a case for using VAR in circumstances such as these. The system is designed to prevent goals being awarded if there has been an infringement in the build-up and that was the case here.
Sadly, we were left with a situation where France were 2-1 ahead but neither goal should have counted. It was an unsatisfactory end to a tournament where VAR has worked far better than I feared it might.
I'd toss that early (in comp) French pen where slo mo showed a slightest of touch......