No matter what happened in Qatar, it was almost guaranteed that VAR would take centre stage at some point.
The former Celtic and Blackburn Rovers player Chris Sutton did not hold back when discussing the controversial technology, labelling the team behind it as “bottle jobs” for their poor decision-making on Thursday evening.
The incident in question happened in Portugal’s opening 3-2 win against Ghana. Under slight contact from Ghanian centre back Mohammed Salisu, Cristiano Ronaldo dramatically fell to the ground and the referee pointed to the spot.
Sutton went on to heavily criticise Ronaldo calling him a ‘cheat’, believing that he dived to win the penalty.
‘Cristiano Ronaldo is a CHEAT’ 😡@chris_sutton73 is not happy with both CR7 and ‘bottle jobs’ VAR 😬 pic.twitter.com/5Wr4orw0Lo
— MailOnline Sport (@MailSport) November 25, 2022
The VAR officials had a look at the incident but backed the referee’s decision and allowed the penalty to stand. Ronaldo scored the resulting penalty putting Portugal 1-0 up and in pole position to go on and win the game.
Ghana had an opportunity to level the score in the dying moments when striker Iñaki Williams snuck up behind the Portuguese goalkeeper but slipped at the pivotal moment.
Inaki Williams knows we will not forget this if Ghana does not progress from this group. pic.twitter.com/v9EQ1Kmqhk
— First Doktor (@firstdoktor) November 24, 2022
Portugal and Ronaldo march on, turning their focus on the next group stage game against Uruguay on Monday night. The fixture will pin veteran striker Luis Suarez against his old La Liga rival, as both teams clamour to finish top of Group H.