FOOTBALL fans were left stunned after “the worst ever” VAR decision denied Croatia a penalty against Belgium.
The two sides met in the final crunch Group F clash this afternoon to determine who would advance to the World Cup last-16.
Croatia had started on the front foot and they were given the perfect opportunity to take the lead early on when Andrej Kramaric was fouled by Yannick Ferreira-Carrasco inside the area.
The referee had no hesitation in awarding the penalty as Luke Modric grabbed the ball and prepared to face his Real Madrid team-mate Thibaut Courtois in the Belgium goal.
But the official, Anthony Taylor, was soon contacted by VAR which led to a lengthy delay as he checked the pitchside monitor for a potential offside.
The footage showed the build-up to the incident and it was discovered by the new semi-automated offside technology that Croatian defender Dejan Lovren was offside by the slightest of margins.
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In fact, it was that tight of a call, it appeared that it was only his shirt sleeve that was off.
The decision was soon overturned in what was technically the correct call.
But fans soon took to Twitter to blast it afterwards as frustrations begin to mount over he way offsides are determined now.
One wrote: “This is the worst offside illustration ever. Show us the full defense line…”
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Another tweeted: “If I can’t tell who is offside from this image then it’s probably not offside.”
A fellow fan wrote: “Scrap the line drawing marginal offsides in favour of the attacking team. It’s for the good of the game.
“This is so tight it would never have been called offside before the introduction of VAR.Time to tweak the rule.”
Another asked: “What part of the body are they using to measure this? Shoulder?… Do they just randomly determine the most 'shouldery' part or the shoulder?”
As another added: “Can players not be level anymore?”
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