VAR causes a storm as Casemiro's goal disallowed, given, and then disallowed again!

All in less then three minutes

Posted Thursday, December 14, 2017 by Marca.com

The first-half of Real Madrid's Club World Cup semi-final against Al-Jazira saw the Spanish giants get a real taste of what is to come in next year's LaLiga as VAR took centre stage in a confusing controversy.

Having seen Karim Benzema's opener already chalked off by referee Sandro Ricci, Casemiro rose highest at the far-post to nod home with his French teammate in an offside position as the ball was floated in by Isco.

Initially, the goal was disallowed but after a brief consultation with his VAR colleagues, Ricci gave it and Casemiro ran off celebrating, with the ball even placed back on the centre spot.

However Al-Jazira players then took their chance to swarm the referee, demanding a further chat with the three officials who had video replays to hand; Arturo Dias, Marvin Torrentera and Wilton Pereira Sampaio.

Ricci clearly didn't have confidence in the verdict handed down to him and opted to watch the goal on a video screen next to the pitch, at which point he decided that Benzema had affected play from an offside position, and ruled it out.

With VAR arriving in LaLiga for 2018/19, onlookers may be interested to know that all this took around two-and-a-half minutes, contributing to the four minutes of stoppage time awarded at the end of the half.

The officials' work wasn't done then, however, as an Al-Jazira goal to make it 2-0 immediately after the break was also ruled out on review, due to a tight offside.