Spurs conceded early on in their Champions League quarter-final first leg but Hugo Lloris kept Sergio Aguero’s spot kick out.
Tottenham Hotspur may have claimed the advantage in their Champions League quarter-final tie against Manchester City but defender Jan Vertonghen was nonetheless not especially happy with something he deemed “extremely weird”.
The all Premier League tie on Tuesday night saw Pep Guardiola’s side awarded a penalty 11 minutes in following a VAR review which penalised Danny Rose after Raheem Sterling’s effort hit his arm in the box, which Vertonghen points out nobody expected and the opponents did not appeal for.
Luckily for Spurs, goalkeeper Hugo Lloris guessed correctly to save Sergio Aguero’s effort from 12 yards, and come the half time whistle, the hosts at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium still had their clean sheet intact.
Tottenham suffered a different kind of setback in the shape of Harry Kane having to come off following a Fabian Delph challenge, but Mauricio Pochettino’s side went on to open the scoring – and eventually triumph – through Son Heung-min’s effort.
In conversation with Sky Sports News, Vertonghen began by talking about the VAR penalty, before going on to discuss what he feels will be the ramifications within the game itself, as well as how it has impacted on him and his fellow defensive players.
“No one expected it. They didn’t even appeal for it so it was extremely weird to concede a penalty like this,” Vertonghen said. “That’s VAR. In a way it’s good. I’m not always a fan but at the end everyone will benefit from it.
“Football is always a very emotional game, and VAR is changing that a bit… Sometimes you can’t do anything else than put your body on the line… it’s important that referees think as a football player sometimes. You can’t even touch anyone. Before it was quite physical, but in a fair way. But now you are too scared to get close to someone.”
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