Offside technology goes down during Newcastle vs Chelsea as VAR delay explained | Football | Sport
The explanation for the lengthy delay in confirming Newcastle United‘s second goal against Chelsea has now come to light. The Blues faced the Magpies at St James’ Park on Saturday afternoon at St James’ Park.
Nick Woltemade had given Newcastle the lead within the opening minutes, before going on to extend the home side’s advantage against Chelsea midway through the first half.
Nevertheless, there was an extended VAR review to determine whether Woltemade was in an offside position when Anthony Gordon delivered the cross for the Germany international.
It has now been confirmed that the VAR’s semi-automated offside technology had malfunctioned during the review process.
The match was shown live on TNT Sports in the UK, with commentator Darren Fletcher revealing that the technology used for offside decisions was “down” when Woltemade’s goal was being assessed.
“The semi-automated offside was down at that point so they didn’t have that technology to lean on,” Fletcher explained.
“Which would have speeded things up, hence it took Peter Bankes (VAR referee) in the VAR room longer to work it out so that’s just a bit of an explanation.
“Whether you like that kind of thing or not that’s the reason why it took longer.”
Both Alejandro Garnacho and Pedro Neto had opportunities to find the net before Newcastle secured their second goal of the encounter.
In the opening minutes of the match, Chelsea’s goalkeeper Robert Sanchez was shown a yellow card by referee Andy Madley.
This came after Sanchez protested to the official about play not being halted while Malo Gusto was down with a possible injury.
