VAR favours big clubs: De Jong after disallowed goal against Real

Ajax midfielder Frenkie de Jong bemoaned that Video Assisted Refereeing (VAR) decisions favour the big clubs after VAR was used for the first time in the Champions League last night to rule out Ajax’s opening goal.

Ajax defender Nicolas Tagliafico appeared to have headed the Dutch side ahead on 38 minutes, but referee Damir Skomina disallowed the goal after Dusan Tadic was shown to be offside on replays.

Tadic was deemed to be interfering with Real goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois after the Belgian spilled a header at a corner and Tagliafico nodded in the rebound.

De Jong felt hard done by after the disallowed goal saw Real bag a 2-1 victory at the Johan Cruyff ArenA in Amsterdam but believes that the Spaniards will feel the pressure in the return game in front of their own fans.

"In Spain, we must play just as we did here at home", he told NOS. "With daring and conviction. Nothing has been decided yet. Real will also feel more pressure in front of its own audience.

"As a team we did well. It's a shame that our goal was disallowed. Maybe something like that falls easily in favour of the big club, we've also had that. But we continued well and also had our chances afterwards. Pity that it didn't yield a better result.,” he said.

Ajax head coach Ten Hag told reporters: "I've seen an excellent Ajax against an opponent of world class and one of the best of Europe, Real Madrid. I think in most parts of the game we dominated the game and created some big chances.”

UEFA later confirmed why the decision was taken.

"The referee identified that Tagliafico's team-mate Dusan Tadic was in an offside position and interfering with the goalkeeper -- preventing him from playing or being able to play the ball -- as the header was being made," said UEFA on Twitter.

"This was in line with VAR protocol and the goal was correctly overturned and a free-kick given for offside."

The decision caused an uproar on social media with on fan on twitter saying ‘VAR = Video Assisting Real Madrid is not a joke anymore. Unbelievable. In the League against Atleti and now this.’