sport

Juventus denied late winner in chaotic stoppage time VAR drama

Published 12:20 12 Sept 2022 BST

Home sport

As far as VAR drama goes, this one will take some beating.

Juventus, at least for a couple of minutes, looked to have rescued all three points after being made to work extremely hard at home to Salernitana on Sunday evening. The visitors had taken a lead in Turin inside 20 minutes, then doubled it deep into first half stoppage time. As expected, Max Allegri's men hit back, halving the deficit Gleison Bremer shortly after the interval. There were no further goals until stoppage time when Leonardo Bonucci snatched an equaliser.

Juve weren't done there, either. Back on terms, they pushed forward for a late winner. Having won a corner, they appeared to have won it when Arkadiusz Milik glanced a header inside the far post, sparking wild scenes of celebration amongst Juve players and fans alike. Milik, perhaps understandably, got a little lost in the moment. Forgetting he'd been booked already, he removed his shirt while celebrating, enough for the referee to whip out a second yellow card and send him off before play restarted. Still, it didn't matter too much. Juve had their win. Except, no... VAR then decided to take a closer look at the goal and deemed that Bonucci had been interfering with play at the time Milik nodded the ball goal-wards. Players and coaching staff from both sides tangled in an on-pitch brawl while the referee consulted his monitor, eventually ruling the goal out. https://twitter.com/btsportfootball/status/1569068092445134851 As if all that wasn't quite enough, Juve were reduced to nine men when Juan Cuadrado was also shown a red, with Federico Fazio also dismissed for the visitors. Oh, and another angle of the goal appears to show that the defender nearest to the corner was actually playing Bonucci on the whole time.