England legend Gary Lineker has criticised the use of VAR following the decision to rule out a goal scored by Victor Osimhen during Galatasaray S.K.’s UEFA Champions League clash with Liverpool F.C., Nigeriasoccernet.com reports.
Galatasaray secured a 1–0 victory in the first leg of their round of 16 encounter on Tuesday, with Mario Lemina scoring the decisive goal in the seventh minute.
Osimhen believed he had doubled the Turkish champions’ advantage later in the game, but the effort was ruled out after VAR flagged an offside in the build-up to the goal.
Reacting to the decision on The Rest Is Football podcast, Lineker described the call as “absurd” and questioned the reasoning behind the intervention.
“I’ve watched it 50 times, and it’s absurd. There’s no impact [from Yilmaz]. It’s just a terrible, terrible decision, and VAR just waved it on,” Lineker said.
“There was no interference whatsoever. It was the wrong player as well. They got it completely wrong. I’ve double-checked it a thousand times.
“There was no contact, and also, it wasn’t that player who went through. He had no impact on the game whatsoever.”