Pep Guardiola’s evident delight at Manchester City’s 2-0 win at Newcastle in the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final was tempered by the lengthy video assistant referee delay that disallowed what would have been Antoine Semenyo’s second goal of the game.
It prompted Manchester City’s manager to launch into an epic, and often incomprehensible, rant about VAR and its perceived failings or, more pertinently, non-involvements during City’s 2-1 defeat at Newcastle in November and last season’s FA Cup final defeat to Crystal Palace.
More positively Guardiola believed the disallowed goal made his team – who already led through Semenyo’s second goal since joining from Bournemouth – “angry”, leading to Rayan Cherki’s 98th-minute goal that offers City a comfortable lead for the second leg at the Etihad next month.
“I think my players were angry,” said Guardiola. “Maybe it [the VAR delay] helped us to be that way. We know how it works and it made us stronger. The spirit was there. But I feel it and smell it in every training session.”
Harking back to November’s game at Newcastle, Guardiola complained in relation to VAR: “It was 0-0 and it was a penalty for [a foul by Fabian] Schär on Phil Foden … In the 20th minute there is an unbelievable penalty for the shot for Jérémy Doku off the hand, and not even VAR.
“Today, four people were not able to decide because the line was, I don’t know, but the second goal Newcastle scored [in November] the line was perfect. I’m not suspicious of that in 10 years. I didn’t say anything when we lost 2-1 here. I didn’t say anything in the FA Cup final against Crystal Palace, it is a red card after 30 or 40 minutes for [Dean] Henderson. OK, it’s fine.”
As City set their sights on Wembley Eddie Howe’s hopes of his Newcastle side retaining the trophy they won last March are fading. “I think we have left ourselves a mountain to climb in the second leg,” admitted Howe.
“We had chances, there were moments to make that score very different but we didn’t take them. I thought we looked a little bit fatigued. That’s understandable. But we’re still alive, we’re still fighting. It’s very difficult to turn it round but it’s all about the next goal. If we can get the next goal in the second leg we’re very much in it. We can be competitive, We can still cause City problems. I don’t think this should dent our confidence, it should enhance it.”
Although Howe had no view as to whether the VAR decision regarding the disallowed goal was right or wrong he was adamant about one thing. “I think five minutes is too long for a VAR delay, especially on a cold night – no good for supporters or players. I’m not sure why it took so long but hopefully the right decision was made.”
