The real reason Luis Diaz’s Liverpool goal v Tottenham Hotspur was ruled out by VAR revealed

VAR official Darren England failed to intervene in Liverpool’s loss at Tottenham Hotspur and award Luis Diaz’s first-half goal because he believed the onfield decision had been awarded as a goal, according to reports.

Diaz thought he had put Liverpool ahead after the Reds had been reduced to 10 men but his celebrations were cut short as the offside flag went up. The decision was swiftly checked by VAR and a free-kick awarded to Spurs, with no image of the lines being drawn to highlight the offside provided.

The PGMOL admitted after the game a ‘significant human error’ meant the goal, which was onside, was not awarded because VAR incorrectly failed to overturn the on-field decision.

Now Dale Johnson at ESPN reports the mistake by the VAR team was getting the onfield decision wrong, as they felt by saying check complete they were agreeing the goal should be awarded when in fact it had not been. Liverpool went on to lose the game 2-1 and ended the fixture with nine men after Diogo Jota was shown two yellow cards in the second.

A PGMOL statement afterwards read: “PGMOL acknowledges a significant human error occurred during the first half of Tottenham Hotspur vs Liverpool.

“The goal by Luis Diaz was disallowed for offside by the on-field team of match officials. This was a clear and obvious factual error and should have resulted in the goal being awarded through VAR intervention. However, the VAR failed to intervene.

“PGMOL will conduct a full review into the circumstances which led to the error. PGMOL will immediately be contacting Liverpool at the conclusion of the fixture to acknowledge the error.”

Responding to the statement, Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp said: “Who does that help? We had that situation in the Man Utd game. Did Wolves get points for it? We won’t get points for it. We all thought that when VAR came in it would make things easier.

“The decision was made really quick for that decision. It changed the momentum for the game. It was super difficult but the boys dealt extremely well with it.”