Former Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez hits out after new VAR controversy

03 October 2023 , 07:27

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Celta Vigo boss Rafa Benitez was furious with VAR (Image: Twitter/@DAZN_ES)

Former Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez has slammed VAR after his Celta Vigo side had a goal disallowed in their 2-1 defeat to Las Palmas.

The result means Celta are now in the relegation zone after conceding two late goals. Anastasios Douvakis gave Celta the lead in the second half, before Jonathan Viera converted an 84th minute penalty and Marc Cardona scored a dramatic winner in the 97th minute.

However, Benitez was furious after the game over Jorgen Strand Larsen's goal getting chalked off after a VAR review. Larsen thought he had given Celta the lead in the first half when he rounded Las Palmas goalkeeper Alvaro Valles and slotted the ball into the back of the net.

But VAR intervened and ruled that Douvikas had fouled defender Mika Marmol in the build-up and the goal was ultimately disallowed, prompting an angry post-match response from Benitez. "It's absurd," he told DAZN, as per Football Espana.

"Every something has to happen to you. Having a goal like that disallowed… those types of plays kill you. Even so you react, you have the game under control and then what if a penalty, what if a foul…

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"How can we not lose in the end? If we score a legal goal and they take it away from you. In that play, my player is ahead, he is in front, I'm watching it right now. I don't understand where the foul is.

"We will have to play something else if that is a foul. Anyone can see it it makes no sense to call those things. It can't be, this is football. We're not talking about ping pong. We're continually rowing against the current.

"I don't really have much desire to talk. The team has done well in general. We have played a good game against a tough opponent. But if I say everything I think, we would be having a lot of problems."

Benitez was appointed Celta boss at the start of the season but his side have struggled so far, picking up just one La Liga win in eight games. However, the 63-year-old is convinced they can turn things around.

"It is very difficult to explain that you have chances and something always happens to you," he added. "For me it is positive that the team comes and creates chances, we lack success. What we have left is to continue working, reinforce the things we do well and correct those we don't."

Matthew Cooper