The next wrong decisions – despite VAR help

This time referee Christian-Petru Ciochirca – in the past few weeks as a VAR man in the penalty for LASK against Lustenau and with a wrongly drawn offside line in Austria against LASK – was even made aware of errors by the video referee, who took them at 3: 3 Austria against Salzburg partly not back.

• Situation one: After 34 minutes, Austria’s Leidner was hit in the ankle by Salzburg’s Nicolas Capaldo with an open sole and had to be replaced. VAR Alexander Harkam – who classified the foul as red-worthy – called the referee, who showed no card even after studying the video.
• situation two: The situation in the 71st minute was also not judged according to the rules: Austria’s Ranftl lifted off an attack in the penalty area, only then did he come into contact with a Salzburg player. Ciochirca received a yellow/red card for a dive. Actually, the VAR shouldn’t intervene at all, because this would only be allowed if it were a clear penalty for Salzburg. The pictures don’t show that. He does it anyway, perhaps to protect the referee who gets the chance to take back the completely overdone second yellow card without automatically awarding penalties. That is allowed. In the case of yellow/red alone, the VAR is not allowed to intervene at all.
• Situation three: The penalty decision to make it 3: 3 for Salzburg was also bad, when VAR also called Ciochirca and he still committed a foul.

No punishable handball

Rapid’s 3-1 win over Klagenfurt was also a tricky situation, but not one that decided the game. Before Oliver Greil supposedly made it 2-0, Rapids Oliver Strunz had unluckily shot the ball into his own hand. According to current regulations, this is not punishable. VAR Daniel Pfister intervened anyway. Referee Manuel Schüttengruber, who had decided on a goal, took the goal back.