Antonio Conte was furious when VAR failed Tottenham to grant them a dramatic late win goal that would have seen them through to the Champions League knockouts.
The fiery Italian admitted he was ‘very upset’ as he spoke to the media in his post-match press conference, went on a rant about the lack of ‘honesty’ in football, and then left after answering just one question.
Harry Kane scored in stoppage time to seem complete a comeback to beat Sporting Lisbon, 2-1. After going in at the half-time break 1-0 down.
The striker hit the ball in the fifth minute. This sparked wild celebrations on pitch and in dugout. Conte dancing along the touchlineThe hosts believed that the effort had won them to the final-16.
However, their celebrations were halted by a VAR check and, after a four-minute wait, it was ruled that Kane was ahead of the ball when Emerson Royal’s header hit Flavio Nazinho and ricocheted into the path of the striker to put the ball in the net.
Conte was sent to Sporting for his furious protestations. Sporting staff and players were then left celebrating the decision which resulted in an ex-Spurs ace Marcus Edwards’ first-half strike against his former club – which was later cancelled out by Rodrigo Bentancur’s 81st-minute header – left all four teams in Group D with a chance of making the knockout stage going into the last game.
And it’s fair to say Conte was not happy, as he answered just one question with a two-minute rant about the ‘unfair decision’ before rising from his chair and stalking out of the press room.
“I think there are moments that maybe you can be a bit intelligent to understand you have just disallowed a regular goal because the goal was regular, the ball is in front of Kane,” Conte began – which, unsurprisingly, is just what a fuming Jamie O’Hara said on talkSPORT after the full-time whistle.
“And then the VAR. I repeat you know I don’t comment on referee decisions but the VAR, this season, I don’t know why between Premier League and Champions League, we are not so lucky.
“I don’t know why until now we are also the only team who repeated the penalty and every penalty I go to see, if the keeper move on line, I see a lot of the time. I want to see Premier League penalties repeated.
“I think we are not so lucky with VAR but I think they create big damage. This is the type of decision that you make with a top team in an important match. I’d like to know if it is possible to do this.
“I repeat this is an unfair decision because the ball is in front of Kane. Sorry, but I am really upset because sometimes you can accept this situation and sometimes I think it is not good because I don’t see honesty in this type of situation and when I don’t see this I become really, really upset.”
To qualify for the last-16, Tottenham will need to draw at Marseille on Tuesday. Conte urged the club’s representatives to discuss the VAR decision.
He added: “For the game we played the first-half with low intensity and Sporting Lisbon deserve to stay 1-0 up and at the end of the game after our second-half I think we deserved to get three points.
“But now for this decision we have to wait to the last game against Marseille and I repeat this decision, yeah it creates big damage.
“I hope the club understands this and then in the right situation they also speak with the people they have to speak to, because otherwise it is only the manager to speak.
“I think the club has to be strong because I repeat this situation creates big, big damage. Now we don’t know what will happen next week.
“If we go out, then I want to see.
“OK, thank you very much,” Conte said finally as he quickly left.
