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Benitez demands VAR after controversial Newcastle defeat

Rafa Benitez was left fuming after Yedlin’s red card in yet another home defeat for his Newcastle side
Rafa Benitez was left fuming after Yedlin’s red card in yet another home defeat for his Newcastle side

Newcastle manager Rafa Benitez has called for VAR to be introduced sooner rather than later after venting his anger at two controversial refereeing decisions as his team slipped to a last-gasp defeat at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers on Sunday.

Referee Mike Dean appeared not to see an apparent elbow in the face suffered by Ayoze Perez that could have resulted in a penalty and a possible red card for Wolves’ Willy Boly.

The Wirral official had earlier sent off Newcastle’s DeAndre Yedlin for preventing a clear goalscoring opportunity as Diogo Jota burst clear, pulling him back after he was caught in possession.

READ MORE: Wolves stun Newcastle with Doherty’s late headed winner

AS IT HAPPENED: Newcastle v Wolves

However, Benitez claimed that Jamaal Lascelles was close enough to have intercepted and a dismissal should not have been the punishment.

“It was key to the game, the red card and the elbow on Ayoze Perez,” Benitez said.

“We need VAR right now. In this game it would have changed everything. How can you explain those decisions to our fans?”

Perez said that the referee told him it was the ball that him in the face.

As for the dismissal of Yedlin, Benitez was adamant that Lascelles was in a covering position as his American team mate pulled Jota’s shirt.

“He was close enough to get across,” the Spaniard said. “You can guarantee to me that the player in the corner of the box can score in the top corner every time? It cannot be a red card.

“We have lost three points today and we deserved to win.”

Instead of moving to within one position of Wolves in mid-table, Newcastle had to watch their visitors shoot into the top 10, nine points ahead of them after a second win in five days following their defeat of Chelsea.

Manager Nuno Espirito Santo felt his team, who handed Newcastle their seventh home defeat in nine, had been fortunate. “We didn’t do the best performance,” he said.

“We didn’t win our duels or manage the possession of the ball. The red card changes the game. We were lucky to beat them in the end. A draw was clearly the right result.”

He dismissed the challenge by Boly on Perez, however, as “a dispute of the ball”.

“It was a tough game in the momentum where we are. Everyone thinks everything was solved after (beating) Chelsea but that’s not true.”