Denmark coach blasts VAR requires deciding Germany recreation

DORTMUND, Germany — Denmark coach Kasper Hjulmand hit out at “ridiculous handball guidelines” and stated “this isn’t how soccer needs to be” after two VAR selections within the area of two minutes in opposition to his group helped Euro 2024 hosts Germany seal a 2-0 round-of-16 victory in Dortmund.

Premier League referee Michael Oliver dominated out a Joachim Andersen purpose on 48 minutes following a VAR intervention that highlighted a marginal offside involving Denmark midfielder Thomas Delaney.

Two minutes later, Oliver awarded a penalty to Germany after VAR officers Stuart Attwell and David Coote urged him to assessment an obvious handball by Andersen from David Raum’s cross. Kai Havertz scored from the spot to place Germany 1-0 forward, and Jamal Musiala then added the hosts’ second purpose later within the half.

However an offended Hjulmand questioned using VAR after the sport and famous that each selections went in opposition to his group.

“It was determined by two VAR selections,” Hjulmand stated. “I’ve the photograph right here [of the Delaney offside]. It was one centimetre. It would not make sense, this isn’t how we’re purported to be utilizing VAR.

“After which after a couple of minutes, it is a penalty [to Germany]. I’m so bored with the ridiculous handball guidelines. We must always not require defender to be enjoying with fingers like this. He [Andersen] was working usually, it is a regular scenario and he was hit with the ball from a metre away.

“I hardly ever speak about these selections, but it surely was very decisive for this recreation. Being in entrance at 1-0 would have been crucial and altered every thing for our group.

“Good luck for Germany, however for my part, this isn’t how soccer needs to be.”

Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann admitted that he had no qualms with Hjulmand’s complaints, saying he would make the identical argument had the choice gone in opposition to his group.

“We had a penalty and I perceive Denmark had been aggravated by it,” Nagelsmann stated. “It is fairly harsh, he did not do it deliberately, however that is the rule. I might have been upset if it had occurred the opposite method round, although.”

Regardless of the 2 essential calls going in opposition to his group, Hjulmand stated he remained a supporter of using VAR.

“I all the time appreciated VAR,” he stated. “I believe know-how can do one thing good for the game, however for my part, when a call is sweet it needs to be seen from the moon and never rely upon just a few centimetres. It is purported to be clear and apparent.

“However when it is like this, it is just a little questionable. It also needs to be faster. There must be a method to enhance it.

“We have been taught in seminars so many instances to clarify the handball rule and we’ve got requested what’s a pure motion?

“After we are instructed, this isn’t a pure place for handball as a result of the participant has to have his arms out to run. Simply inform me what the rule is.”

UEFA issued a press release on its web site defending the handball determination and using know-how to detect the handball by Andersen.

“Through the match between Germany and Denmark, linked ball know-how housed inside Adidas’s Fussballliebe ball confirmed that Denmark defender Joachim Andersen touched the ball together with his hand contained in the penalty space,” UEFA stated.

“On this occasion, the sensor was capable of document precisely the contact of the hand of the participant with the floor of the ball.

“The ‘heartbeat’ of the ball proven on broadcast is similar because the referee sees in the course of the on-field assessment and discerns the purpose of contact precisely to five-hundredths of a second.”

Hjulmand, in the meantime, defended referee Oliver’s determination to take each groups off the pitch within the first half attributable to {an electrical} storm.

“I wasn’t frightened, however I used to be on the lookout for the gamers,” he stated. “I used to be concerned in a recreation in Denmark when the lightning hit one in every of my gamers, so I understand how harmful it may be.

“The lightning was proper over the stadium, I noticed my gamers’ response and it was the correct factor to come back off.”