Norwich City were subjected to torture by VAR for a second consecutive match after a disallowed Crystal Palace goal was overturned in the final minutes to deny the league’s bottom club three vital points.
Connor Wickham was adjudged offside by the assistant referee when he put away Wilfried Zaha’s cross in the 86th minute, but just as with Teemu Pukki’s goal against Spurs three days earlier, VAR analysed the footage and overturned the call, this time finding Wickham to have been behind Christoph Zimmermann’s right foot. Norwich had held the lead since Todd Cantwell opened the scoring in the fourth minute.
“When you get an equaliser so late in the game and after such a strange situation again, it feels like a loss today, without any doubt,” the Norwich manager, Daniel Farke, said after the match. “What I have learned during this season is that each and every VAR decision went against us; I knew they would find one moment when they could paint a little nice line.”
“When I compare our goal against Tottenham, Pukki is one yard further away from the opponent, but they found one moment when the outside of his shoulder was closer to the goal than a part of the opponent’s body. Today it feels like the player is one yard closer to the goal than Christoph Zimmermann, but they found a moment when they could put a little line when his toenail was closer than a part of the opponent. If you can guarantee you draw the line at the precise moment the ball leaves the foot, we have to accept it. But I’m not sure you can absolutely [do] this.”
Farke said he did not want to talk about VAR any more, but did so at length for the second time in a week. Roy Hodgson was able to take a more phlegmatic approach. ‚“These days every goal is checked‚“, the Palace manager said. “Last week we were convinced we scored a good goal against Southampton, then found out that the goal was chalked off by the smallest of margins. Today it was the opposite. Today the fine margin has worked in our favour.”
Norwich now have won just once in their past 16 league matches and are seven points adrift of Aston Villa in 17th. It looks very much as if an immediate return to the Championship is in prospect, but the Canaries played well against an admittedly heavily-depleted Palace side. They defended stoutly against a barrage of set pieces and had at least four good opportunities to double their lead. But as the match ticked down to its nervous final moments, they had only Cantwell’s goal to cling onto.
It came from a nice move, which saw Norwich pushing Palace’s low block to the edge of their own box. Playmaker Mario Vrancic unlocked the space, stabbing a sharp pass beyond Luka Milivojevic and into the feet of Emi Buendia. The Argentinian spun past Mamadou Sakho and managed to get off a shot that was deflected, but only into Cantwell’s path, and his finish was clean.
Palace’s team sheet listed four academy players as substitutes, a reminder of the depth of their injury problems. Hodgson was missing seven first team players and Sakho was withdrawn at half-time with a hamstring injury too. But the XI on the pitch were customarily resolute and the old fox on the sidelines played his hand well with two late substitutes both playing their part in the equaliser.
Wickham was introduced for Max Meyer and 18-year-old forward Brandon Pierrick came on for full-back Martin Kelly. Pierrick began the move, switching the play to Zaha out wide. Zaha, who had been the subject of ironic jeers from the home crowd after two mishit shots, beat Max Aarons and pinged a cross to Wickham, who side-footed home. The goal was disallowed, but VAR is obliged to check and while Tim Krul set the ball up for a goal kick the big screen soon said otherwise. Decision overturned.
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