VAR surrounds controversy with alleged poor decision making in Manchester derby

Tanish Chachra | 08/03/2020
VAR surrounds controversy with alleged poor decision making in Manchester derby

VAR surrounds yet another controversy in the Premier League as it allegedly made a poor decision to deny Manchester United a penalty.

Premier League’s VAR implementation has added problems instead of reducing them. In the game between Manchester United Vs Manchester City, VAR surrounds yet another controversy as it allegedly wrongfully denied Manchester United a penalty.

In the 42nd minute of the game, Fred advances inside Manchester City’s 18-yard box, over where Nicolas Otamendi caught making a contact with him which apparently brought Fred down.

Match official Mike Dean perceived it as a dive by the Brazilian midfielder and he penalizes him with a yellow card, but replay showed that Otamendi made a contact and was far away from the ball, which could have been given as a penalty.

But ironically, Fred was charged in the end. Dean can be given a benefit of doubt as the contact probably was not clear from his position, hence ended up in misjudgement.

But at the same time, VAR had all the resources to overturn the decision and award a penalty to Manchester United, as social media assert this point amidst the match.

Certainly, the penalty would have been a major boost to Manchester United, as it could have helped them cementing the tie against the local rivals at the Old Trafford.

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Bruno Fernandes is highly clinical when it comes to penalties and most probably would have deceived Ederson. Nevertheless, the Red Devils are still ahead at the moment after Anthony Martial scored the opening goal while combining with Fernandes in a set-piece.

Manchester City risked playing their arch-rivals with Kevin De Bruyne and Riyad Mahrez and so far the gamble is not working in their favour, with few minutes still to go, let’s see what lies ahead in the game.

Post Edited By: Tanish Chachra
fred Manchester City Manchester United Nicolas Otamendi VAR

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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