VAR Comes to Real Madrid’s Rescue in a Fortunate 2-1 Win Against Ajax

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Real Madrid claimed a fortunate 2-1 win at Ajax in the Champions League last-16 first leg after a late goal for the holders.

Real Madrid needed the late winner from Marco Asensio and VAR’s debut in the Champions League to beat a spirited Ajax.

VAR has been introduced to the Champions League for the first time in this year’s knock-out stages and leaflets were distributed to the media before kick-off, one of the points explaining that reviews should only be made for “clear and obvious mistakes”.

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Ajax’s Nicolas Tagliafico saw his opener ruled out due to a marginal offside call, a decision that Madrid’s boss Santiago Solari believes was correct and said that head coaches need to trust in VAR after Real Madrid benefited from the controversial call.

Ajax thought they had taken the lead when Tagliafico headed the ball in following a goalmouth scramble.

But after a consultation with the video assistant referee team, referee Damir Skomina went across to watch the incident again on his screen and disallowed the goal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjUh68sT9T4

“We don’t have the elements to make a judgement. We don’t have a monitor. We trust what VAR or the referees say,” Solari said after the match.

“Without a doubt [we suffered]. We knew how to play the game, how to work it, suffer through it and to score when we created those chances.

“We did everything and that shows the strength of the players and of the group.”

Madrid struggled in the first half against Ajax’s high press, but Solari did not agree that it was a poor performance overall.

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“That’s your opinion,” he said. “We had to do a lot of things to get this result. We had to work, suffer, know how to escape the press, and be strong.

“This is the Champions League, the last 16, and there are no teams that are not very good.

“They played with a lot of energy, pushing some situations to the limit, and they made us work hard for the win.”

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