Champions League final controversy with huge VAR delays as Karim Benzema has goal ruled out for offside
REAL MADRID were left bemused after a Karim Benzema goal was chalked off at the end of the first half.
The Frenchman thought he had given his side the lead after firing home a loose ball – only for the linesman to raise his flag.
VAR then stepped in but after a delay of three minutes and 22 seconds the officials decided to stand by the offside call.
Benzema was judged to be in an offside position as he was behind goalkeeper Alisson with only Andy Robertson between him and the goal.
But the ball appeared to come off Ibrahima Konate and then Fabinho to fall into Benzema’s path.
However, Fabinho did not intentionally play the ball backwards and therefore the officials had to rule out the goal.
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On BT Sport’s coverage of the match Rio Ferdinand said: “The ball comes off a Liverpool player and it’s deemed offside?”
“If I’m a Real Madrid player, I’m going bananas in that changing room!”
Benzema broke in behind the Liverpool defence brilliantly to get onto the end of David Alaba’s superb long-range pass, before striking what he thought was his 16th Champions League goal of the season.
Alisson would have breathed the biggest sigh of relief as he failed to cut out Benzema’s initial cutback and instead sparked chaos as the ball deflected off his knee.
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But Real Madrid did later take the lead on the hour mark with Vinicius Jr tapping home Valverde’s low cross after being judged onside, but by a tight margin.
Unfortunately for Uefa, Benzema’s disallowed goal was one of several controversial incidents during the Champions League final.
Fans watching at home complained that the TV angle was too distant while also slamming the pre-match performance of singer Camilla Cabello.
There was also chaos outside the stadium as fans were blocked from entry, leading to the game being delayed three times and eventually kicking off at 8:36 pm GMT.