One month away from the mega event in the sports entertainment, where countries compete with each other, where fans get together to support their favorite team and player.
FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar, would be the most important event for most of the players in the football world.
Teams started competing for the qualifying round, no one expected that this year’s qualifying matches would get so much exciting and intense.
It got started with the shocking history made by Turkey winning two qualifying matches and showcased their fine form.
The Qatar FIFA World Cup qualifying began on Wednesday and Thursday where many fixtures took place.
Fixtures that stunned the fans:
Russia managed to win against Slovenia where the Russian hero Artem Dzyuba scored double to give the national side an awesome lead.
The 2018 host Russia develops their hope for Qatar’s 2022 edition and forming their form in a better way.
Apart from that, Croatia and Netherland held their position and bounced back to the winning side. But one match that made Portugal skipper angry along with the Portuguese boss as well.
Ronaldo Anger, No VAR in Qualifying Matches:
Portugal started with the domination against Serbia where Diego Jota scored double to give his team a great lead, but on the other hand, Serbia didn’t give up and exhibited their game in the second half by equalizing it.
Looking at the overall ball possession Portugal held a strong command over it and controversy took place when in the added late time Ronaldo tried to score but the Serbian defender cleared.
The defender cleared the ball beyond the goal-line, but the match referee didn’t allow it.
But why it happened? Because in qualifying matches no VAR technology involved.
Such issues put the world top scorer into the situation where no one can hold their anger adn frustration.
Post-Match Talk:
The Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo said the whole nation “harmed” when the controversial goal disallowed by the referee in the late added time.
Even though before the full-time whistle, Ronaldo got booked as well while he got frustrated with the referee’s decision and took off his captain band in anger. Later on, he took out his frustration on Instagram,
“I always give and will give everything for my country, that will never change. It’s surely an hard time for the whole nation, when they know such things harm their happiness.
“We will keep our heads up and face the next challenge now.”
Head Coach Views
Fernando Santos the head coach of the Portugal team also shared his view on not having VAR, “it’s ‘unacceptable’ that VAR and goal-line technology is not used in every World Cup qualifying game.”
“We scored a goal that was not given when the ball went in. In a match of this level, that isn’t possible.
“The referee apologized to me in the booth and told me he felt embarrassed. Referee apologized to me, while I headed to the dressing room.
“He had told me on the pitch that he was going to see the images and that if it was the case he was calling me to apologize – and so it was.
“I told him on the pitch that there was no VAR or goal-line technology – one of the things he told me was that the goal line was important – but I told him that the ball was half a meter inside the goal.
It’s not the first time such incidents took place, that’s the second time in a qualifying match, where the referee took the bad decision for which he had faced criticism and it happened just because no having a VAR.
The qualifying round continues, more matches to come and FIFA should think of including VAR technology in the qualifying stage as well. Because it would surely happen again and again to another team.
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