Otto Addo, the head coach of Ghana, has condemned the Video Assistant Referee, VAR, for awarding Portugal forward, Cristiano Ronaldo a soft penalty in Ghana’s 3-2 loss in their World Cup opener Thursday.
Ronaldo was fouled by Mohammed Salisu inside the penalty box in the second half of their Group stage match, which the experienced forward converted to put Portugal ahead.
But reacting to the spot kick, Addo said that the referee was quick to award the penalty. He queried the inability of the VAR to review the incident before Ronaldo took the penalty.
Addo while speaking on the penalty in a post-match conference said, “The referee gave a penalty which wasn’t a penalty – everyone saw that. Why? Because it is Ronaldo or something?
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“I think you’ve to ask the referee. I have no proof of that. We were playing the ball and then there was contact.
“I don’t know whether they weren’t paying or whether the VAR wasn’t paying attention.
“If you look at the replay, we played the ball, it was actually a foul against us. If somebody scores a goal, congratulations. But this was really a gift.
“Up to the penalty, everything was possible. Then the game got a little bit wild.”
Ghana will play their next match on Monday against South Korea.
Source: Complete Sports