Africa Cup of Nations 2019: Senegal 1-0 Tunisia - 3 reasons why Senegal won

The Teranga Lions celebrate!
The Teranga Lions celebrate!

#2 Contentious VAR decision

Video Assistant Referee (VAR) was deployed for the first time at AFCON this year
Video Assistant Referee (VAR) was deployed for the first time at AFCON this year

Technology is meant to make things easier, isn't it?

That was certainly the goal when FIFA finally bowed to pressure and introduced VAR technology to the beautiful game. However, this innovation has been heavily criticised in certain quarters, with sceptics saying it does more harm than good.

The debate was further galvanised with this matchup, as VAR played a very important role late on.

The referee pointed to the spot when Cheikhou Kouyate's header came of Gueye's hand, however, the VAR operators urged him to have a second look. On further inspection, it looked a penalty (to me at least), but the referee decided to scrap his earlier decision.

If Kalidou Koulibaly was penalised for a very similar scenario earlier on, then surely Gueye should have been penalised as well.

VAR is meant to make these decisions easier, but it seems human error continues to rear its ugly head. Surely, the Tunisians will feel hard-done-by.

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