Jamie Carragher blasts VAR ‘mistake’ as Coutinho has screamer disallowed against Man City | Football | Sport
Jamie Carragher questioned why Philippe Coutinho had a goal disallowed in Aston Villa’s 1-1 draw with Manchester City. Coutinho fired home a stunning strike late in the second half but VAR did not intervene when it was ruled out for offside.
Ollie Watkins was adjudged to have been offside before Coutinho slammed home – but the England forward was later shown to be onside. The goal did not stand and VAR did not intervene.
Commentating for Sky Sports, Carragher said: “It wasn’t an issue I thought, Ollie Watkins… but you just see Philippe Coutinho at the bottom of the screen that pass there – he’s not offside. Man City have got away with one.
“Then the linesman thinks he’s come back from an onside there again. Is it because the whistle’s been blown beforehand [so VAR can’t intervene]? That is a major mix-up between these officials, it really is. That is a mistake. I wouldn’t want to be the man who tells Steven Gerrard after the game.”
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VAR did not intervene in the aftermath because referee Simon Hooper had already blown his whistle. The assistant referee had flagged for offside against Watkins, prompting Hooper to halt the match.
“Jarrod jumps over him. His trailing foot is there but the goalkeeper could never get the ball, he pushed it too far away. The referee made the correct decision (to initially award the goal), so… I don’t know who it was who done VAR today.
“To send the referee over to go and have a look at that was a terrible call. It’s put the referee under pressure. But even then I was thinking, ‘well, there is no way the referee is going to [disallow it], he’ll say it’s fine’. He didn’t and he chalked the goal off.”
Villa still managed to take points off City despite being on the wrong end of a poor decision by the officials. Leon Bailey’s strike cancelled out Erling Haaland’s 10th Premier League goal of the season.
