Newcastle star's reaction to Man City VAR farce says it all - 'We don't want to see that' - The Mirror

VAR was front and centre on Tuesday night after denying Antoine Semenyo another goal following a controversial offside call that has players and managers frustrated

Newcastle defender Dan Burn admits that the letter of the law means Antoine Semenyo's second goal was right to be ruled out - but the offside decision and VAR intervention is something he ultimately "doesn't want to see".

The Manchester City new boy scored the opening goal at St James' Park as the visitors secured a 2-0 win in the first-leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final. Semenyo thought he had doubled his tally for the night soon after when he flicked home from a corner, only for VAR to intervene.

There was no appeal from the Newcastle backline but the technology flagged a potential offside. Erling Haaland was being marked by Malick Thiaw, and was deemed to have denied him the chance to clear the ball whilst being offside - ruling out the goal.

Burn, though, was honest enough to concede that players don't want to see goals chalked off for those types of offsides. He said: “I do think it is the right decision, I just don't like the subjective offside. It's either offside, or it's not. We don't want to see that, but by the letter of the law it should be disallowed.”

Semenyo has now scored two goals in two games since his move from Bournemouth but made it clear that he felt he should have had three, saying: "The second goal should have stood!"

Pep Guardiola claimed the controversial call made his team "stronger" as they rallied to find a second courtesy of Rayan Cherki - putting them in firm control of the tie. Bernardo Silva, who has won this tournament four times in the past, said: "It should have been 3-0 but we are quite used to this at the moment. It is so frustrating because the last time we came here we also had a lot of decisions go against us."

Former Manchester City defender Micah Richards was also critical, saying: "I understand the process but VAR wasn't brought in for this reason here. This is anti-goal which they said they weren't going to do, they said they weren't going to re-referee the game.

"This for me is re-refereeing the game. They are both going at it. It might be right, but I don't think we should be taking away goals for this. Why take five minutes?"

City have their gripes with VAR after a panel admitted Phil Foden was wrongly denied a penalty when they last played at Newcastle - a game they lost 2-1.

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