Fenando Santos Head Coach of Portugal, has defended the refusal of the match officials to consult the Video Assistance Referee (VAR) during the Group H match against Ghana on Thursday, at the Stadium 974 in Doha, Qatar.
Ghana protested the refusal of the match officials to consult the VAR after a penalty was awarded to Cristiano Ronaldo, and a seemingly offside goal by Rafael Leao.
However, Coach Santos thinks otherwise and defended the decision at a post-match press conference saying “I think if the VAR team had felt the referee should consult the VAR, they would have prompted him.
“I also think Joao Felix was fouled at a point and I expected the referee to check the VAR, but he didn’t. So I don’t think there was a call the VAR would have been necessary for the referee,” he added.
Touching on the quality of the Black Stars, Coach Santos said, “Ghana played the way they played against Brazil in the second half and so we expected them to play like that and they did.
“To be honest, Ghana played very well against Switzerland, and we expected they would play like that today. They played like the way they played Brazil in the first half and played like they played Switzerland in the second half.
“They played the way we expected, but we won. And we are happy,” he stated.
