Benfica and Porto suffered at the hands of the referees in their league match against Estoril, with penalties being missed. At least that is the understanding of the FPF Council of Arbitration (CA), as “vice president” João Ferreira explained on Monday during a program in which the VAR audio recordings are released.
“VAR warned of a possible penalty. Final decision [tomada pelo árbitro Manuel Oliveira] it wasn’t right. Player [Mangala] reaches [Marcos Leonardo] and inattentive. The Estoril player was awarded a penalty and a yellow card,” João Ferreira defended. The error did not affect the result: Benfica won 3–1 against Luz.
This did not happen with Porto, which defeated Amoreira with a score of 1:0. In the 58th minute, before Diogo Costa was sent off in the 65th minute, and during a free kick Cassiano scored the only goal that Estoril won in the 69th minute, Francisco Conceicao fell in the penalty area, in the game , which again had Mangala as the main character. Antonio Nobre broke the rules, but Thiago Martins called him to reconsider his decision (full dialogue in infographic).
Faced with a “difficult move”, Joao Ferreira admitted that the “best initial decision” on the pitch would have been “not to take the penalty”. However, the penalty should not have been canceled at all: “VAR is for clear and obvious errors. This does not seem to us to be a clear and obvious mistake. We believe VAR’s intervention was excessive. The combination of the two contacts supports the local decision. VAR should have seen it from that perspective. The facts are too uncertain for VAR to intervene.”
FC Porto president Pinto da Costa criticized Thiago Martins after the game.
Author: João Moniz
Source: CM Jornal
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