Diogo Jota was the goal scoring hero of the night that Liverpool reached their 13th League Cup final, beating Arsenal 2-0.
Scoring a second goal with less than 15 minutes to go should be the perfect opportunity to send the travelling fans wild but the long VAR check the followed the ball hitting the back of the net, faltered this somewhat.
It’s a part of the game now but for our No.20 to come out after the match and confirm it killed the moment for him, is a sad reality of modern football.
The 25-year-old said: “I said in the dressing room already, it killed a bit the joy of the moment.
“I was going to celebrate with the fans 2-0 and then we need to stop but then when you realise you are actually on, it’s not just my second goal but the goal that kills the game so it was a really important moment”.
The Portuguese forward had his initial celebrations cut short before a more orchestrated and reserved display of jubilation was presented to the fans after the goal was allowed.
It’s not something we can change and it’s ultimately a positive for the game, nevertheless it’s upsetting to hear this massive moment was ruined slightly for a man on fine form at the Emirates.
You can watch Jota’s comments on his delayed celebration (at 1:48) courtesy of LFC TV (via Reddit user u/snh96):
One way to improve VAR in offside decisions is to apply the “clear and obvious error” law that they keep going on about. This would have been to the determent of Liverpool last night, however. By this I mean if they have to add in the lines they use to determine offside, then it’s not a “clear and obvious error”. If you can clearly see just from the cameras that the decisions is wrong, then they can advise the ref, but if not then it needs to go with the on-field decision. Additionally they should be given a time limit of 15-30 seconds max to determine if there was an error, because again if it takes any longer it’s not a “clear and obvious error”. The only way to extend this time limit would be to advise the ref to have a look themselves, in which case they get their own 15-30 seconds to have a look.
In this rare case in our favour, the delay because of VAR was a help. Without VAR, the goal would have been disallowed because the Linesman/Referee’s assistant had flagged for offside.