Schmeichel laments ‘exceptionally harsh’ VAR decision against Denmark

Matt Stead

Kasper Schmeichel has expressed is anger at the VAR system which has twice gone against his country Denmark at the World Cup.

The Leicester City man couldn’t stop Mile Jedinak’s penalty on Thursday as the Danes were held to a 1-1 draw by Australia.

The penalty was awarded by referee Lahoz after he consulted VAR for a handball by Yussuf Poulsen, and caused split opinion among pundits.

“I think it dominated the game in its own way,” Schmeichel said at the Cosmos Stadium in Samara.

“I think it is an exceptionally harsh decision. I don’t know what else Poulsen can do in that situation.

“He is jumping so his arm is going to be slightly raised and it is headed onto his arm from half a metre away so I don’t know how you can give that but the referee unfortunately saw it differently. If you are going to be giving stuff like that then you are going to be facing a lot of penalties in general.

“I think work is needed on VAR, I don’t think it is where it should be at the moment. I think in time maybe it can work but that’s two games in a row where we have come on the bad end of a VAR decision. I think we had a situation with Andreas Cornelius where he tried to stay on his feet.

“He is probably too honest and he should have had a penalty himself, but he is an honest guy and he tries to stay on his feet. That’s maybe a situation where the VAR could have helped the referee. The free-kick on Yussuf Poulsen leading up to the corner kick that they got where the penalty was. Someone needs to tell the referee that was a bad decision.”