Marcus Rashford scores injury-time penalty to secure Man Utd's progress to quarter-finals
Thursday 7 March 2019 08:17, UK
Thomas Tuchel says he still supports VAR, even after it was used to award an injury-time penalty to Manchester United that knocked Paris Saint-Germain out of the Champions League.
United recovered from a 2-0 first-leg deficit in dramatic fashion on Wednesday night as they won 3-1 in Paris to reach the quarter-finals on away goals, with Marcus Rashford converting the penalty to secure the win.
The penalty was awarded after the referee consulted the VAR for a handball against Presnel Kimpembe.
While debate raged among pundits and supporters as to whether it was a penalty, PSG boss Tuchel said: "I am a big supporter of VAR, and I remain a big supporter of VAR.
"When [Diogo] Dalot took a shot, I saw the ball flying straight from his foot and it goes way over the bar. I was surprised to see it was a corner because I hadn't seen that, then he goes to the VAR, so I knew he was going to give it because he had evidence.
"There are too many points in whether we punish it, the distance from the player, does he move his arm, it's 50-50. Some say no when others say yes, that's the difficulty with handball.
"To get a reward for shooting from 22 metres over the bar and get a reward from 11 metres doesn't make sense, but we played on the thin line for 60 minutes knowing this could happen.
"I think it's difficult. I think there are reasons why you can give this penalty. When he goes to VAR, we know he has reasons. With handball, you have soft facts but not hard facts. The shot is wide, and then suddenly it's a penalty. OK."
Tuchel also denied that PSG's defeat was related to 2017 when they blew a 4-1 first-leg lead to lose 6-5 on aggregate to Barcelona.
"It cannot be mentality because Thilo Kehrer was not with us in Barcelona. We must not step into this trap and make a story out of it," he said. "As human beings, it's good to build stories. For me, the problem only existed today, and the way we started was not the way to start the game.
"We showed excellent reaction, we were not concerned at all, we had complete domination of the ball, had a lot of chances, and were not under pressure or in danger of any counter-attacks. The second goal was something that will never happen to Gigi [Buffon] again, and he wasn't in Barcelona, nor me.
"So you cannot put it on Barcelona. If you have an opponent who is clearly better than you, then ok, you have something to analyse. If it was a league game, you can wipe your mouth and go. But today it is horrible, and we didn't deserve to go out over 180 minutes. It's a big disappointment of course."
