In terms of common sense, it was the right decision, but it opens an entire can of worms regarding the use of VAR.
If the ref vlew his whistle for a foul before the ball went out then he must restart somehow. If he only below up after it went oit then its a corner. If its a call of pen or no pen then var can get involved. Thry upgraded a free to a pen. Then they decided they could look at the handball and if it met their own threshold for deliberate For me.it did look close to being inside. Had to tell. As they do not have to announce to the crowd in the cl we are all then wondering. If its not in the area var should.not be involved and further review of the handball is not allowed. My guess is they upgraded to pen then looked at tje screen to see if tje handball was enough.
In prem never a pen. But the way they gives pens in Europe thought was nailed on. Dived and had his arm out and hit it. Was surprised it was overturned. They need to change the rule around restarts for overturned stuff. We had a shot it got blocked and was going out for a corner or to out wide player, and instead we didn’t get the free kick, pen or the ball. Should be returned to whatever side has the ball when decision was made. But that’s a rule change for VAR tbh Was also concerned by fact that Vini wasn’t sent off for a clear dive after already being on a yellow and then Bellingham going through back of Wirtz and avoiding a yellow only to then be booked later which should have been his 2nd and the ref turning his back on the tackle on kerkez and missing the Madrid player kick through him
It was miles on the area hence why var then could overturn it as decided the handball wasn’t actually a handball.
Agree with you, we got no advantage from a position where we did nothing wrong and but for the whistle, would have retained possession one way or another. For a card-happy referee, he missed a lot of very clear bookings. I also thought that every player who surrounded the referee while he was viewing the pitch side monitor, should have been booked.
Referee gave handball outside the box. Because it was outside the box, VAR couldn't interfere with the handball decision, they could only review the position of the incident. Therefore, it should have been a penalty since was clearly inside the area. Overall, I don't think it should have been a penalty. But rules are rules.
Since the start of the 2022 CL final, where we played Real Madrid, a quarter of all Courtois' saves in the CL have been against Liverpool.
He made 8 saves the other night, only 3 were straight at him. He's incredible when he plays against us.
And the one that went in was straight at him - just powered through him. He had a very good game. (Not as good as Bradley)
It depends on what you class as straight at him. I wouldn't call a shot going over his head that needed his arms at full stretch to stop it as 'straight at him', in the same way I don't call a low shot going wide of the keeper that requires him to extend a leg fully to save as 'straight at him'. Semantics maybe. Bradley was our best player and had we had more than one scorer, I think he would have got the motm. They always keep it simple with these match awards, if there is one scorer he gets it. Bradley nullified their main goal threat but for me, Courtois edged motm because his individual performance had more of a major influence on the game.
I watched a "Courtois performance against Liverpool' video and counted the shots before typing that comment.
*Ekitike header, *Dom's freekick, Gakpo shot at keeper bounced out to one of ours (can't determine who by the video) who shot at the keeper. *Dom's left footer just outside box, Gakpo shot as he's falling over straight at keeper who's come right out to save it, *Virgil's header and *Dom's long range from the right side which Courtois was almost vertical for in order to save it. All those with an * produced full stretch, acrobatic saves.
True, there are a couple of outstanding saves there from a top keeper but commentators and footy media lose their ****
I'd say anything that is within his reach without him having to take a step or dive for it. Sometimes they can still be good, instinctive saves, but because they're within reach you'd expect most keepers to save them. Ironically, the one we scored was probably the easiest to save.
