Tottenham manager Antonio Conte was sent off in the closing moments of his team’s 1-1 draw with Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League after Harry Kane disallowed a late winner via VAR.
Tottenham had been under pressure for most of the match, with former Spurs star Marcus Edwards opening the scoring for the away side midway through the first half. Rodrigo Bentancur had equalized with a header from a corner in the 80th minute and the Lilywhites had missed multiple chances before Kane thought he had netted the winner with the game’s last shot.
The stadium completely erupted as Spurs supporters felt they had won the game in the most dramatic way possible. However, a VAR check ensued and officials deliberated for longer than usual on the decision.
Ultimately, they concluded that Kane was offside for Emerson Royal’s header from across the box, despite the ball leaving a Sporting player before it landed at the England captain’s feet.
Conte couldn’t keep his composure and charged onto the pitch to question the decision, receiving a straight red card for his outburst of anger.
The decision was criticized by those at the BT Sport studio, who were particularly scathing about the time it took to make a decision.
“It’s puzzling because you’re going to absolute fractions of minutes,” said Glenn Hoddle. “They’re in a game that’s played frantically and quickly. If it’s clear and obvious and you say, yeah, fair enough but with goals like that.”
“People in the stadium are not going to come to the stadium anymore. But one thing about football is that you want to celebrate. The fans want to celebrate a goal, but today the goals are going to come in and the players are not going to want to celebrate.” . .
“People won’t come to the stadium. They will watch it more on TV. It’s taking it out of the game, it’s exhausting. It takes the euphoria out of the game and it’s not just Tottenham tonight, it’s going to happen again in the future.”
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