Manchester United lost 4-3 to Copenhagen in the Champions League group stages – but it was VAR once again that stole the show.
The technology was at the forefront of all things dramatic once again in the Champions League clash. There was a dubious Marcus Rashford red card, two soft penalties and overall chaos under the lights in the Danish capital.
This comes after VAR controversy in matches against Manchester City and Fulham in the Premier League over the last two weeks for the Red Devils, not to mention the other calamities spread around the English top-flight.
People are now seriously fed up.
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Speaking with CBS Sports post-match, former Manchester United keeper and Danish legend Peter Schmeichel said that VAR may need a ‘rethink’.
“We don’t understand now who we are playing this game for,” Schmeichel began. “It’s for the people here, the 36,000 here.
“Not a single one of them reacted to any of those incidents. No one was screaming for a red card, no one was screaming penalty in both situations.
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“The game gets stopped, nobody knows what goes on and it kills the great atmosphere. It kills the enthusiasm for fans in this stadium.”
He then concludes with the fact he thinks VAR needs to have some sort of change.
“Common sense has gone out of football and VAR, I mean they’ve had a bad two weeks, but we need to rethink that in my opinion.”
Steve Bruce on VAR and Marcus Rashford’s red
A man who fought on the pitch, pre VAR of course, with Schmeichel, also shares the same values.
Steve Bruce, speaking on the Football Daily podcast, said VAR sparked some ‘hideous’ decisions against Copenhagen.
“Then we go into the hideous VAR decision,” Bruce begins. “Which we’re talking about far too often.
“VAR was not supposed to be brought in to make those calls like we’re seeing at the moment. VAR was meant to be brought into the big key moments in games.
“We’re talking about the Diego Maradona goal, the Thierry Henry goal, the Frank Lampard over-the-line versus Germany. All of them are the reasons why we want VAR. Not to dissect it the way it currently is.
“They’re making it this awful spectacle which I think ruins the game at the moment.
“For me, it needs looking at and redefined again,” he concludes.
Whether VAR is set to change at any time soon is unknown, but the noise surrounding it at this current time is deafening. For the sake of the game, we hope change is imminent.
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