VAR is the scourge of many football fans’ lives in England, but the first few minutes of tonight’s Merseyside derby illustrate why it was brought in.
Everton thought they had a penalty in the sixth minute when Alisson Becker fouled Dominic Calvert-Lewin inside the Liverpool box and was duly shown a yellow card, but the call was referred to Stockley Park due to an offside in the build-up.
The subsequent review, which took considerably more than 60 seconds, showed that the decision was clear-cut and the spot kick was rightly overturned, as was the booking for the Reds goalkeeper.
This is one instance where VAR did its job in terms of correcting a clear and obvious error, and a case study of how it should operate but all too often doesn’t. Thankfully, David Coote was on hand to rescue Liverpool by justifying his presence in Stockley Park tonight.
You can view the offside call below, via @SkySportsPL on X:
Everton have a penalty ruled out after the VAR check shows Calvert-Lewin is offside! ❌
What a start to the Merseyside derby 😰🔥 pic.twitter.com/IOTYy802Pf
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) April 24, 2024
There were 2 Everton players off-side as clearly shown so no penalty.