No VAR⁉️ Tammy Abraham scores Villa goal despite visible offside | OneFootball

While the use of VAR has proven consistently controversial, it was the lack of it that made headlines as Aston Villa took the lead in the FA Cup fourth round against Newcastle.

Tammy Abraham opened the scoring with his first goal since returning to Villa in January, with his happy moment under the microscope as replays showed the striker was offside, with no way to overturn his close-range effort.

The Villa striker found the back of the net after he appeared to catch Newcastle out, getting on the end of Douglas Luiz's free-kick to finish from inside the box.

Later in the first-half, Lucas Digne was shown a yellow card for what appeared to be a strong, and potentially reckless, sliding tackle on Newcastle's Jacob Murphy.

While Villa's goalkeeper Marco Bizot received a red card on the stroke of half-time, Newcastle fans will still be absolutely fuming with VAR's absence.

However, in the wake of a controversial and lengthy decision in last weekend's Premier League clash between Liverpool and Manchester City, these two decisions perhaps demonstrate the merits of VAR, in spite of its downsides.

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