Eidevall “angry” at VAR decisions in Arsenal Women’s narrow UWCL defeat to Bayern Munich by Michelle
Arsenal Women suffered a narrow defeat to Bayern Munich last night, in the 1st leg of the UEFA Women’s Champions League quarter-finals. Arsenal created chances, particularly in the second-half, putting Bayern Munich under some real pressure but ultimately failed to convert.
There were certainly some controversial decisions from the officials and Arsenal head coach Jonas Eidevall was very obviously angry from the sidelines at a couple of those VAR decisions. Speaking after the match, Eidevall told Arseblog:
“Part of me is proud because it was a really good performance, part of me is disappointed because we need to be more efficient with our chances. Part of me is very angry, I am not sure whether VAR was working tonight otherwise it was someone who was sitting and not looking at the pictures because there were clear and obvious penalty situations, two of them, I think that is unacceptable.”
The decisions Eidevall was particularly unhappy about were: The pull of the shirt (on Rafaelle) and the handball from their number 4, that was obvious.
VAR was available at the match, a standard requirement from the quarter-finals onwards, but goal line technology was not unavailable as Bayern Munich had taken the decision not to make it available for the match. On receiving an explanation for the VAR decisions and goal line technology, Eidevall had this to say:
That’s not how communication with officials works, I wish it worked like that. That is where we have a couple of issues. First of all is that VAR is only introduced in the quarter-finals, I don’t know whether the VAR referee has ever used VAR. Secondly, goal line technology is something you can use at this stage of the competition but it’s not compulsory. Today, it was not in use. Because Bayern Munich choose not to pay for it. Next week at the Emirates Arsenal chooses to pay for it because we think that’s the right thing to do to ensure a fair competition. It is a problem for the competition that not every game has the same level of technology in helping the officials take the right decisions.
Would goal line technology have confirmed this as an equaliser for Arsenal?
Kumagai coming in clutch! pic.twitter.com/HJmrXCBUg2
— Melly ツ (@Zadraball) March 21, 2023
The return leg of the UEFA Women’s Champions League quarter-final will take place at Emirates Stadium on Wednesday 29th March, kick-off 20:00 UK. Tickets are still available to purchase here.
Our Gunners need your support more that every Gooners! Let’s make some noise at the Emirates! Have you got your tickets?
Michelle Maxwell
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