The match in the AFC Champions League was undoubtedly a heart-stopping visual feast. However, Shandong Taishan had to be on high alert as the VAR video assistant referee was a superhero who seemed to want to see the Yokohama Mariners win even more than the home team's players and coaches, and couldn't wait to intervene in the match to help the Yokohama Mariners soar.
VAR's intervention, surprisingly, amounted to a whopping three times: twice he awarded Yokohama Mariners penalties, and once he called for a red card to be shown to a Bangkok United player. Even with VAR's reasonable intervention, the first two calls were still baffling, even to the referee on the pitch.
In the first half of extra time, with the match on the threshold of the 100th minute, the home team kicked a corner kick and an attacking player fell to the ground amidst a heated struggle between players from both sides (see photo below). The match appeared to be proceeding normally, but the Yokohama Mariners players turned a blind eye to the foul. Just after the match had continued for about a minute, the VAR Video Assistant Referee suddenly intervened - he alerted the visiting player that he had pulled down the home player and awarded a penalty kick.
However, when the referee himself went to watch the video replay, he decided it was a normal defensive action and did not penalize the penalty. Bangkok United were lucky to escape the clutches of VAR, but the video assistant referee didn't stop there. In the 107th minute of extra time, a Bangkok United defender intentionally tripped the Yokohama Mariners (see below).
The referee showed a yellow card warning on the spot. But just a minute and a half later, VAR intervened again and reminded the referee that it was a red card action. The referee then went to the pitch to check again, and it turned out to be a complete falsehood, as the Bangkok United player who committed the foul was not the last defender (see below), and the action was not enough to warrant a red card.
Despite this, the referee ultimately failed to take the advice of the video assistant referee. However, it didn't end there! In the final minutes of the match, the video assistant referee finally did something - he facilitated the final penalty kick.
The story of this penalty kick is sobering. The game was in the 117th minute when a home player signaled a foul by a visiting player to stop a cross. The home players then surrounded the penalty kick, but the referee initially judged it to be a corner kick. The VAR video assistant referee then quickly intervened.
In the 118th minute, after communicating with the video assistant referee, the referee determined that it was a free kick outside the penalty area (see above). Yokohama Mariners were not satisfied and continued to surround the penalty kick. Surprisingly, the VAR Video Assistant Referee continued to communicate with the referee and insisted it was a penalty kick.
Eventually, in the 120th minute, the referee was forced to recognize the penalty kick as valid at the insistence of the VAR video assistant referee. It was with this goal that the Yokohama Mariners managed to turn the tables and advance to the next round. It was an outrageous intervention by the video assistant referee, who did almost everything he could to support the home team, a clear favoritism that can be described as "blatant favoritism". Therefore, Shandong Taishan will have to be careful when they face Yokohama Marinos in the next round. This kind of VAR intervention is even more exaggerated than the Chinese Super League!
