Pochettino says VAR was ‘embarrassing’ after Spurs victory
The first half of Spurs' 6-1 win over Rochdale in the FA Cup fifth-round replay was marred by a number of VAR decisions, leaving the Spurs players and Pochettino baffled, even after they had reviewed the footage at half-time.
Erik Lamela's fifth-minute goal was ruled out by VAR after a foul by Fernando Llorente and referee Paul Tierney denied Spurs a penalty using VAR after Lucas Moura was felled. Spurs were then awarded a penalty using VAR after Son Heung-Min had made it 1-0 but the South Korean's successful spot-kick was ruled out after he stopped in the run-up. Rochdale equalized through Stephen Humphrys -- a goal reviewed by VAR -- and there were five minutes of stoppage time at the end of the first half.
"My feeling is difficult," Pochettino said after the match. "I am so happy because the job is done and we are in the quarterfinal. The first half was embarrassing for everyone.
"I am not sure that the system [VAR] is going to help. We love the game that we know. Football is about emotion, we want to keep the emotion. The fans are not so happy about what they have seen today. In my opinion we have the best referees in Europe and the world.
"Football is about mistakes. We make mistakes, the players make mistakes, the referees make mistakes. When we watch the action at half time it was difficult to take some decisions. The referee has the last word always.”
“I am for the new technology but we must be careful when we change the game. We are going to kill emotion. Rather than talking about football we talk about the machine."