Olaleye Idowu
Manchester City midfielder Bernardo Silva has blamed the Video Assistant Referee, VAR, for the Cityzens’ FA Cup defeat to Crystal Palace on Saturday.
He expressed frustration over VAR’s failure to send off Crystal Palace goalkeeper Dean Henderson for handling the ball outside his box in City’s 1-0 defeat in the FA Cup final.
Crystal Palace netted the only goal of the game at Wembley in the 16th minute through Eberechi Eze.
Although City dominated possession (78.3%), had more shots (23-7) and shots on target (6-2), they were not able to score, even missing a penalty in the process.
Just before he saved Manchester City’s penalty, Henderson could have been sent off for apparently handling the ball outside the area, denying Erling Haaland a goal-scoring chance.
However, VAR thought otherwise, incensing City players, with Henderson going on to produce a slew of other saves to deny the Cityzens.
Silva said as quoted by the Mirror, “You play in the best league in the world, teams work a lot to arrive at these stages and to perform. If we lose, it should be for us or any team, because we don’t perform well. It shouldn’t be like this. When you have technology, there’s just no excuse for the mistakes that happen.
“We’re a bit too used to these kinds of situations. I’ve watched it now, and I think it’s a big mistake, because playing 60 minutes with one more player can make a difference.
“I don’t like to make excuses at the end of games that we lose. I want to give credit to this Palace team, because they’re a very good side. They deserved it. They ran like crazy.”
It was Crystal Palace’s first-ever major trophy in 120 years.
For Pep Guardiola’s Cityzens, they will have a trophy-less season since 2017.
