Rangers fans have reacted after VAR helped Bayer Leverkusen emerge victorious at Ibrox on Thursday night.
The controversial system was in use for just the second time in the stadium, for the first-leg Europa League last 16 fixture against the in-form German club.
It’s only ever previous deployment at Ibrox came a few weeks back against Braga, in a game which passed with little controversy.
However, it came to the fore just after the half-hour mark in this game, with the referee summoned over to the pitchside monitor to assess an incident inside the Rangers penalty area.
The Gers had just cleared the ball out for a throw-in following pressure from the visitors, but while it wasn’t picked up by many in real-time, replays showed that Charles Aranguiz’s initial cross had struck George Edmundson’s raised hand.
After a relatively brief look at the monitor, Szymon Marciniak awarded a penalty.
Leverkusen’s star player and captain, Kai Havertz, then promptly stepped up and slotted his penalty down the middle beyond a diving Allan McGregor.
It came at a key point in the game just as the Gers were starting to settle in and it provided the platform for the Bundesliga side to go on to record a 3-1 victory.
Many Bears had demanded the introduction of VAR earlier in the season following a run of poor decisions against them in domestic competitions.
There’s been plenty of controversy surrounding the system this season, particularly with the way it has been implemented in England, but fully aware of their previous calls for technology, few disagreed with this big call.
Here’s a selection of reactions from Twitter:
https://twitter.com/GoodCopBabcock/status/1238202734140145669
https://twitter.com/Cjnovo992/status/1238202877207891968
