Late goals from Arturo Vidal and Eduardo Vargas did the magic as Chile started off their Confederations Cup campaign with a 2-0 win over the African champions, in a match that saw the video assistant referee (VAR) system generate controversy.
Vargas got a goal in the first-half, but it was ruled out by the centre referee after referral from the VARS system showed that the goal came from an offside position. This decision caused some frustration as the South American champions ended the first-half without scoring a goal.
A replay from the system showed that Vargas have been just a few centimetres offside, subjecting the incident open to debate as regulations for VAR use state the original decision can only be changed if it is “clearly wrong.”
The South Americans made serious protest when the goal was cancelled but everything turned to deaf ears, giving them an impression that they had lost a vital three point ahead of teir next match against the World Champions.
However, the Chileans heaved a sigh of relief when Vargas eventually got his goal in stoppage time at with the VAR decision being to his own advantage when a linesman’s offside flag was overturned after Sanchez ran through and had a shot blocked allowing Vargas to follow up and score.
Chile move to the top of the group with three points while they await the result of the match between Australia and Germany which comes up on Monday at same venue.
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