Antonio Conte was furious as VAR ruled out Harry Kane’s late strike
(Picture: REUTERS)Antonio Conte took aim at a VAR “injustice” as Tottenham were denied a last-gasp winner against Sporting.
After Rodrigo Bentancur equalised with ten minutes remaining in north London, cancelling out Marcus Edwards’ first-half strike as the Sporting man struck against his former club, Spurs piled on the pressure late on as they looked to complete the comeback.
They appeared to have done just that, when Harry Kane hooked the ball into the net in the final minute of stoppage-time to spark wild celebrations and seemingly send Tottenham through to the last 16 of the Champions League as group winners.
But the mood quickly darkened as a VAR check was announced, and the goal was ruled out after it was deemed Kane was in an offside position when Emerson Royal headed the ball into his path.
Conte was shown a red card for his furious protestations in a chaotic conclusion to the match, and the Spurs boss had not particularly calmed down in his post-match interview.
“The ball was in front of Kane and the goal is a goal,” Conte told BT Sport. “Yeah. I don’t understand the line they put. It’s very difficult to comment on this decision.
“VAR is doing a lot of damage. I want to see if in another stadium of a big team if they are ready to disallow this type of goal. I’d like to know this.
“A lot of injustice. I don’t like this type of situation. I see not positive things.”
He added: “The [red] card, all the people come inside [on to the pitch] after the decision, to disallow the goal, then he [the referee] came to give me a red card, maybe because I was the more popular person on the pitch.”
Spurs were incredibly sluggish in the first-half and were booed off at the break, but improved markedly in the second period and pinned Sporting back for much of the half.
It was not enough to get the three points that would have booked their place in the knockout stages, meaning they must now go to Marseille next week and get a result in the final group-stage match.
“We need one point, but I don’t understand why we have to wait one game when we can finish the qualification in this game,” Conte said.
“I don’t understand why we have to get something from the next game when we can finish the qualification in this game. When you invent this type of situation, it’s incredible. You create a lot of damage for the club.”
