It was a second meeting of the season between Aberdeen and Rangers and once again VAR featured heavily in the encounter.
Aberdeen were a much improved side from their disappointing display against Celtic but found themselves 1-0 down early in the match.
Fashion Sakala gave Rangers the lead as he slotted the ball through the legs of Kelle Roos.
There was a huge hint of fortune as the ball bounced back to him after his initial effort.
There were big appeals from the Aberdeen defence and the home crowd for a handball against Sakala as he attempted to take control of the ball.
The referee was well positioned to see any possible infringement and, after a VAR review, the goal was rightly awarded.
I can understand the shouts for handball at the time but after the review it is clear to see the ball hit the Rangers player on his chest and upper arm so the call to allow the goal was absolutely spot on.
Should Aberdeen have had a penalty?
Aberdeen almost equalised a few minutes later with Ranger captain James Tavernier hitting his own post.
The ball did appear to strike his arm under pressure from the Aberdeen forward ‘Duk’.
The incident was checked on VAR and I have to agree with the decision made to not award a penalty. The ball does appear to hit the arm of Tavernier, but the arm is not in an unnatural position.
From the replays I have seen the ball also appears to hit his upper arm, level with the sleeve line and bottom of the armpit which would mean no handball and no penalty.
There were claims for a Rangers foul on Sakala before the award of the free kick which ‘Duk’ equalised from, they were confidently waved away by referee Willie Collum.
This was an excellent piece of refereeing. It was not a foul and the right call was made, if a penalty had been awarded I couldn’t see VAR overturning the decision for that ‘foul’.
That is of course a potential downside to VAR, if it had been a foul VAR would not have been able to interfere with the decision.
Spot-kick would have been harsh
Rangers also had a strong penalty shout after Aberdeen took the lead in the second half, the ball was crossed into the box with it striking the stomach and then the arm of Dons defender Ross McCrorie.
Awarding a penalty would have been extremely harsh as there is nothing he can do with his arms, it isn’t making his body bigger and it certainly isn’t unnatural. The referee was spot on with this decision.
As Rangers snatched the victory deep in stoppage time there were also claims of a handball against Connor Goldson before Scott Arfield fired into the net.
The rules surrounding handball are constantly changing and can be incredibly confusing at times.
The rule on handballs leading to a goalscoring opportunity is pretty clear, if a player scored after the ball hitting an arm – accidental or not – the goal is to be disallowed.
Unfortunately for Aberdeen fans the ball does appear to graze the chest of Goldson and not his arm so there was to be no saving VAR intervention for the Dons as they threw away three points.
What about the amount of injury time?
The final point to be made about this enthralling encounter was the amount of additional time played in the match.
A total of seven minutes was announced, a decision which has now irked Dons fans given Rangers scored and the 95th and 97th minutes.
I think it was a fair amount of added time as there were several changes for both teams, injury stoppages for Roos and Anthony Stewart of Aberdeen and a few flashpoint moments where the referee needed to take control of the game.
Based on how the recent World Cup has gone in terms of added time, I can certainly see referees across Scotland starting to award more minutes due to time wasted in a game.
Overall I thought the referee team and VAR did extremely well, they got the big calls right.
They struggled at points to manage and control the game but this is to be expected in a game of this stature.
Both Aberdeen and Rangers fans will claim to have been on the wrong end of decisions but in my opinion the referee team had a very solid game.
- Finlay Elder has been a registered referee for six years and a category 5 official since 2019, with experience in the Highland League, juniors and Club Academy.
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