VAR 'damaging' game, says Conte

Tottenham manager Antonio Conte said VAR is doing "damage" to soccer after he was sent off for protesting Harry Kane's disallowed stoppage-time strike in a 1-1 draw with Sporting Lisbon in London on Wednesday.

Spurs looked set for the Champions League last 16 when the England captain scored in the 95th minute.

But after a review lasting over three minutes, the goal was disallowed for offside, sparking fury from Conte.

The Italian was shown a red card by Dutch referee Danny Makkelie, meaning he is likely to be banned from the touchline when Tottenham visits Marseille on Tuesday.

Conte's men lead Group D by a point from Sporting and Eintracht Frankfurt, but all four teams can still qualify.

A point will be enough for Spurs in southern France to progress, while Sporting also just needs a draw to go through when it hosts Frankfurt.

"I think VAR is creating a lot of damage," Conte told BT Sport.

"I want to see if we are in another big stadium, another big team, if they are ready to disallow this type of goal?

"When you invent this kind of situation it is incredible. You create a lot of damage to clubs."

Tottenham had been forced to come from behind after ex-Spurs forward Marcus Edwards opened the scoring.

Rodrigo Bentancur equalized 10 minutes from time and the host thought it had snatched victory at the death.

Kane was adjudged to have been just in front of the ball from Emerson Royal's header despite the Brazilian heading the ball backwards across goal before it struck a Sporting defender.

"A few of us don't have a clue what happened," said Tottenham defender Matt Doherty. "I thought because it went backwards and hit a defender it was a different phase of play. I'll have to look at the rule book.

"If we're being honest we didn't play that well. We're top of the group. It's not how we wanted the night to go, but it's still in our hands."

AFP