Revealed: Why VAR took over five minutes to rule out Manchester City goal against Newcastle | OneFootball

A review by VAR officials which ultimately led to a disallowed goal for Antoine Semenyo has been heavily scrutinised after the fact on Tuesday night.

The lengthy pause inside St James’ Park quickly became one of the defining talking points of City’s Carabao Cup semi-final first-leg victory, with players, staff, and supporters all left waiting for clarity.

In a game already played at high intensity, the stoppage disrupted momentum and added to a growing sense of frustration around long VAR checks in crucial fixtures. From City’s perspective, the incident felt especially significant given how dominant their position had become.

Having already established control of the tie, a second Antoine Semenyo goal at that stage would have placed one foot firmly in the final. Instead, the extended delay injected uncertainty into proceedings and briefly allowed Newcastle a psychological lifeline.

Pep Guardiola has previously spoken about the importance of clarity, speed, and consistency in officiating decisions, and the drawn-out nature of the process on Tyneside reinforced wider concerns across the game when technology is involved.

Now, according to the Press Association news agency, the delay in ruling out City’s second Semenyo goal for offside in Tuesday night’s Carabao Cup win at Newcastle was extended due to semi-automated offside technology not being used in the incident.

It is claimed that the check by VAR would have been significantly quicker if semi-automated offside technology had been available, but the number of players inside the penalty area at the time of the incident meant it could not be used.

As such, VAR officials had to draw crosshairs due to the number of bodies within the box, while the Premier League’s website refers to such incidents where SAOT cannot be used as “edge cases.”

The goal itself came from a corner, with Semenyo instinctively flicking the ball home from close range after Tijjani Reijnders’ delivery. Celebrations were quickly tempered, however, as referee Chris Kavanagh was sent to the pitchside monitor following a prolonged review, before eventually ruling the effort out for offside against Erling Haaland in the build-up.

The time between the ball hitting the net and the final decision stretched beyond five minutes, leaving Manchester City players visibly perplexed and supporters inside the stadium unsure of what was being checked – all adding further weight to the argument that even with advanced technology, certain scenarios remain heavily reliant on manual intervention.

The decision ultimately did little to derail City’s control of the semi-final, after Semenyo had already opened the scoring to continue his remarkable start following his £65 million move from Bournemouth, while Rayan Cherki’s late strike provided a crucial second goal.

Looking ahead, Manchester City will be confident that the controversy does not overshadow what was otherwise a highly professional away performance, and they will have one eye on the Carabao Cup final despite an entire 90 minutes still to go in early February.