Aston Villa RAGING after being denied crucial goal vs Man Utd due to VAR protocol and miss out on Champions League
ASTON VILLA are FUMING after missing out on Champions League qualification after they had a goal wrongly disallowed and VAR could not intervene.
With their game at Old Trafford goalless, Manchester United keeper Altay Bayindir appeared to get away with a huge error.
Morgan Rogers chased down Harry Maguire's header back and he nicked the ball out of the Bayindir's grasp.
The Villa man then rolled the ball into an empty net in what looked to be a crucial goal for Villa's European dreams.
But referee Thomas Bramall had blown for a foul by Rogers on Bayindir.
Replays showed the United stopper never had full control of the ball and the goal should therefore have stood.
But due to the official having already blown his whistle for a free-kick, VAR were unable to overturn the decision.
And just minutes later, Amad Diallo scored to make it 1-0 to United before Christian Eriksen doubled their lead.
It meant Villa missed out on Champions League qualification as they failed to better Newcastle's result, who lost to Everton by a goal.
Before the controversial refereeing incident, Villa were on course to finish in the top five ahead of the Toon.
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But defeat meant they finished on 66 points in sixth place, missing out to Newcastle on goal difference.
Villa have instead had to settle for a place in next season's Europa League.
McGinn raging
Aston Villa captain John McGinn was raging after the game.
He said: "I think everyone wanted the correct decisions when the VAR was implemented. You watch rugby, even if the referee has awarded a try and it's wrong, its overturned.
"It's so so hard to take especially when the impact it has on us, as a club and a team, is so big.
"Its' really, really tough to take and handle. I don't think we deserved to win but if you were 1-0 up at that point and all you need is a point to get to the Champions League, it's costly.
"Moving forward, the rule has to be looked at as the correct decisions were not getting made at the end of the day. I think [referee] Thomas [Bramall] knew. It probably wasn't fair on him at that moment either. The boys are gutted."
Asked if the ref acknowledged his mistake, he said: "He didn't really know what to say.
"Because of the impact it has on us as players and our careers, the club, you are obviously angry. I think he is a young referee who has progressed very quickly.
"Maybe we could look at having more experienced referees. I don't know. It's just an incredible decision and makes today even worse than it should be."
Manage Unai Emery added: "It was a mistake. A big mistake.
"The match we played overall in 90 minutes with the red card and this goal disallowed, it was a key moment. but overall, they did more.
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"But we showed resilience with one player less. We could have scored one goal and it would have been a good opportunity to continue and keep the result. We didn't perform enough today to get a good result but we could get it, in case some decision weren't like it was."
Emery revealed he spoke with the referee after the game: "Yes, I told him but he knows it [he made a mistake]."