The Dutch forward didn’t think it was right that Harry Kane’s equaliser was chalked off for handball after a video assistant review
Steven Bergwijn has hit out at the decision to disallow Harry Kane’s equaliser for Tottenham against Sheffield United on Thursday.
Moments after Sander Berge had opened the scoring with his first Premier League goal for the Blades, Kane thought he had levelled the scores only to see the goal ruled out by VAR. In the build-up to the goal, Lucas Moura had inadvertently brushed the ball with his arm as he fell to the floor.
Under the current handball rules, a goal cannot be given if the ball touches an attacker’s hand or arm in the build-up – a rule which is being forensically applied with the close-ups and slow-motion replays afforded by VAR.
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“In my opinion it is a goal, [Lucas] can’t put his hands anywhere,” Bergwijn said. “They also pushed him in the back, so there are two things wrong.
“I don’t understand [why a free-kick wasn’t given afterwards], maybe it is because we played through but I think he has to give the goal.
“Where is he supposed to put his hands? It is a goal in my opinion.”
Spurs boss Jose Mourinho said in his press conference that he thought his side had been affected by the decision, but Bergwijn didn’t agree.
“I think it did affect them, clearly it did,” Mourinho said. “I think the team was playing well in the first half in spite of us not creating many chances, but we were very much in control.
“They scored the goal, the team reacted immediately. We scored and then I think the team felt it too much and when you compete you have to be ready for unlucky situations, ready for a big mistake that your keeper makes, ready for the penalty that some guy misses.”
Bergwijn – speaking at the same time, rather than reacting to Mourinho’s comments – had a different view.
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“No, I don’t think like this. It is mixed feelings, but I don’t think it affected the players,” he said. “When you concede a goal and equalise so quickly it is a good feeling, but it is disallowed, it’s really mixed feelings.”
Sheffield United jumped above Tottenham with their victory, with Spurs now sitting ninth in the Premier League with six games to play.
“We have to look game to game and we will see,” Bergwijn added. “We have to win every game. We have to forget this game now and look forward. Yeah, it was a bad result today, but we have to go on.”
