Arsene Wenger is a very successful manager despite his recent struggles with Arsenal. Nonetheless, one trophy has evaded his illustrious career: the Champions League.
The Frenchman came achingly close to winning the coveted title in 2006, reaching the final only to lose 2-1 to Barcelona in Paris. The Gunners went ahead despite being one man down, but conceded the equalizer with only 14 minutes on the clock.
Samuel Eto’o was the first scorer, before Juliano Belletti netted the winner four minutes later. However, Le Prof feels Video Assistant Referee could have prevented the north London outfit’s heartbreak.
The French manager insists that the Cameroonian forward was offside for the equalizer. Had VAR been around back then, Wenger feels that goal would have been ruled out.
VAR has taken center-stage at the FIFA Confederations Cup, as the use of technology has helped match officials make correct calls. Wenger is happy at the introduction of technology, but feels it should have come earlier.
When asked to name the refereeing calls during his Arsenal days that could have been changed – for the better – by VAR, he told Arsenal Player:
"I would choose Barcelona’s equaliser in the 2006 Champions League final because it was offside, and we were 1-0 up with 30 minutes to go. That’s the trophy I miss here, you know, so that is for me the most important one.
Wenger went on to name two other examples. One was Van Persie’s controversial sending off against Barca for kicking the ball into the net despite being flagged as offside and the other was a very recent incident.
“The second one I would choose is the second yellow card for Robin van Persie at Barcelona in 2011, because this was the moment we were qualified against a very strong team, and it was a very difficult decision to accept - it basically killed our chances.
“After that maybe I go to a more recent decision - against Bayern Munich when Laurent Koscielny was sent off for a penalty when Lewandowski was offside. That just comes to my mind now but maybe I forget many, many, many, many more."
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