THE PGMOL have released a grovelling apology after admitting bungling VAR Darren England made a calamitous error during Tottenham’s 2-1 win over Liverpool.
With the score still 0-0, Liverpool star Luis Diaz was played through in the 34th minute before grabbing a goal, only for it to be ruled out as offside.
However, closer inspection of the incident showed the 26-year-old was actually being played onside by Cristian Romero.
And it ended up being costly with nine-man Liverpool going on to lose the game 2-1 following a last-minute Joel Matip own goal.
PGMOL have now admitted a “significant” mistake was made by VAR.
SunSport understands VAR England clearly saw Diaz was ONSIDE but forgot what the on-field decision was.
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He then accidentally gave the “check complete” signal believing he was AWARDING Diaz’s goal when, in fact, he was allowing play to continue at 0-0.
Following the match the refereeing body released an apology.
The statement read: “PGMOL acknowledge a significant human error occurred during the first half of Tottenham Hotspur Liverpool.
“The goal by Luis Diaz was disallowed for offside by the on-field team of match officials.
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“This was a clear and obvious factual error and should have resulted in the goal being awarded through VAR intervention, however, the VAR failed to intervene.
“PGMOL will conduct a full review into the circumstances which led to the error.
“PGMOL will immediately be contacting Liverpool at the conclusion of the fixture to acknowledge the error.”
It was not the only time the Reds were on the bad side of a call, with Curtis Jones being sent off in controversial fashion early on.
Jurgen Klopp made his thoughts on the decisions clear after the match.
He said: “I never saw a game like this with the most unfair circumstances, crazy decisions.
“We scored an own goal, that is really tough to take but I am really proud. The first red card, Curtis steps on the ball and goes over. Not a bad tackle.
“It looks different in slow motion. He steps full throttle on the ball and goes over the ball. That is unlucky.”
Speaking before hearing the PGMOL’s explanation, he continued: “The offside goal. That is not offside when you see it, they drew their lines wrong.
“It is so tough to deal with it.”
After the refs chiefs’ statement, Klopp added: “We had that situation in the Man United game.
“Did Wolves get the points for it? We won’t get the points for it.
“We all thought that when VAR came in it would make things easier.”
Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou sympathised with Klopp and revealed he had never been a huge fan of VAR.
He said: “I’m on record saying I’ve never really been a fan of VAR. The biggest problem we seem to have trouble to grasp is that no amount of technology is going to eliminate errors.”
The 2-1 result was Liverpool’s first Premier League defeat of the season.
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Regardless, after an impressive start to the campaign they remain in fourth.
Meanwhile, Spurs have moved up to second in the table with the win and are now just one point behind Manchester City, who fell to a shock 2-1 defeat against Wolves.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
