Former managers, Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger have faulted the decision to award England a crucial extra-time penalty in their semi-final win over Denmark.
Recall that The New Diplomat reported that the Three Lions advanced to a first major tournament final after 55 years on Wednesday night.
Harry Kane’s strike completed a turnaround after Gareth Southgate’s men had gone 1-0 down in the first-half.
The Tottenham man missed the penalty before tapping home the rebound but plenty of debate surrounded the awarding of the spot kick.
Raheem Sterling went down after Jannik Vestergaard and Joakim Maehle both made attempts to halt his run.
Dutch referee Danny Makkelie pointed to the spot and VAR opted not to overturn a decision that seemed soft.
The football managers reacting to this, insisted that the VAR should have stepped as replays showed the contact was not enough to have resulted in a penalty.
Mourinho said: “I say the way I see it, not the way it is. Maybe you don’t like my opinion this time. It’s never a penalty. The best team won, England deserve to win. England was fantastic, but for me, it’s never a penalty.
“The best team won, England are a better team than Denmark. Denmark played the way I was expecting them to play on to their limits.”
“England was really, really good and no doubt they deserved to win that match/ But, for me, it’s never a penalty. At this level, a semi-final of a Euro I don’t understand really the referee’s decision.
“I don’t understand even less the fact that the VAR didn’t bring the referee to the screen or overturn the decision. For me it’s never a penalty.”
Ex-Arsenal manager, Wenger agreed with Mourinho after saying he couldn’t understand how VAR did not give the referee another look at the incident.
In his words: “No penalty, Look in the moment like that I believe that the VAR I don’t understand why they don’t ask the referee to have a look at it. In a moment like that, it’s important that the referee is absolutely convinced that it was a penalty.”
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