Football fans were treated to a feast on Tuesday night when Pep Guardiola's Manchester City side travelled to face Carlo Ancelotti's Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final.
City are attempting to reach the holy grail of English football by completing the treble - Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League success all in the same season, following bitter rivals Manchester United in their famous 1998/99 campaign.
The visitors got off to a good start in the match, dominating the early stages. But it was the hosts who took the lead, with Eduardo Camavinga charging downfield before laying the ball off to Vinicius Jnr, who smashed a shot past Ederson from range.
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City had been caught out, with Real then doing their best to wrestle the momentum in the tie. But after the break, Guardiola's team got back into it through a stunning strike from Kevin De Bruyne from outside the box.
However, there was a hint of controversy about it. In the minute leading up to the goal, Bernardo Silva appeared to have let the ball run out of play, lunging to keep control while it was in the air. Despite protestations from Ancelotti on the sideline, the game progressed.
Real briefly won the ball back before Rodri intercepted a pass, finding Jack Grealish who clipped a ball to Ilkay Gundogan, with the German international laying the ball of for De Bruyne to hit an unstoppable strike.
Legendary Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger was on punditry duty for beIN SPORT, and claimed that the goal should not have been allowed to stand, with VAR not intervening. The broadcaster was able to create a 3D image of the ball during the game, showing that it may indeed have gone out of play.
"The VAR normally should check if a goal is regular or not," Wenger said. "In a situation like that, they have to intervene and they did not go far enough back to check if the ball was out or not or they [were unable] to check if the ball was out or not.
"I think we go for the second solution because normally VAR cannot check on the sideline, only on the goal line. VAR has been created to make more right decisions [based] on facts - is the ball in or out? VAR has to intervene and make the right decision, this is absolutely 100%.
"At the moment, I believe we cannot check on the sideline if the ball is in or out on the VAR. But we have a chip in the ball now and with a chip in the ball you can check."
However, Wenger is wrong to say that the VAR "have to intervene" in this instance. UEFA currently do not use the technology to create 3D mapping of the ball on the sidelines - which was not an instant creation by the broadcaster, either. Given the ball was in the air, it's unlikely there would have been a camera angle definitively showing the entire ball had been out of play.
And also, from UEFA's own explanation of when VAR would be used during the Champions League, they would be unable to intervene to go back to the incident as it was a different phase of play.
"The VAR is also able to take into account any infringement that could have taken place in the immediate build-up to the incident (the attacking phase of play)."
As Manchester City lost the ball following the incident with Real Madrid taking possession, that attacking phase had ended. When Camavinga's subsequent pass was intercepted by Rodri, a new phase of attacking play began, leaving the VAR unable to intervene even if they had decided it was a 'clear and obvious' error by the linesman.
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