Rafa Benitez slams ‘absurd’ VAR decision in a post-match rant… after his Celta Vigo side saw a goal controversially disallowed before suffering defeat to Las Palmas

• Rafa Benitez saw his Celta Vigo side suffer their fifth defeat in La Liga this season
• The Celta Vigo boss was angered by a controversial VAR decision in the first-half 
• Click HERE to listen to the latest episode of Mail Sport’s ‘It’s All Kicking Off’

Former Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez has slammed the use of VAR after seeing his Celta Vigo side controversially denied a goal before suffering a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Las Palmas.

Celta were denied a 36th minute opener in the match after Jorgen Strand Larsen had rounded Las Palmas goalkeeper Alvaro Valles to put his side 1-0 up.

A VAR review led to the strike being ruled out by the referee, with Anastasios Douvakis having been adjudged to have pulled the shirt of Mika Marmol in the build-up.

The decision was taken despite Marmol also appearing to be holding Douvakis’s shirt.

Douvakis would ultimately give Celta a second half lead in the match, but an 84th minute penalty by Jonathan Vieira and a stoppage time goal from Marc Cardona earned Las Palmas a 2-1 win at home.

Celta Vigo saw a goal ruled out after Anastasios Douvakis was penalised for shirt pulling

Douvakis was ruled to have fouled Mika Marmol, No 15, despite both players shirt pulling

Celta Vigo boss Rafa Benitez hit out at the decision during a post-match interview

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Benitez launched into a post-match rant about the first half decision to rule out Larsen’s opener, which he claimed had impacted his team emotionally.

‘It’s absurd, that in every game something has to happen to you and for a goal like that to be annulled,’ Benitez told DAZN.

‘On an emotional level it’s killing the team. You have the game under control and again what if a penalty, what if a ball, what if a foul.

‘How are we not going to lose in the end if we score a legal goal and they take it away from you, in the end it is very complicated.

‘I don’t have to talk to the referee. It’s such an obvious thing that in football you can’t call those things because it doesn’t make sense.

‘The VAR enters, who will be in a room calmly saying “no, if he does like this, I don’t know what”. It just can’t be, this is football, we are not talking about ping-pong.’

The decision was the third time in eight matches that Benitez had seen his Celta side have a goal ruled out following a VAR review, including seeing an opening effort chalked off against Real Madrid last month.

Benitez saw his Celta Vigo side fall into the bottom three in La Liga following their latest defeat

Benitez has overseen just one win since being appointed as Celta boss in the summer, with a five loss of the season seeing the team drop into the bottom three in La Liga.

The 63-year-old’s comments on VAR come after a controversial weekend, which saw Liverpool wrongly having a goal ruled out in their 2-1 defeat to Tottenham in the Premier League.

Reds winger Luis Diaz had his strike disallowed for offside but VAR Darren England and assistant Dan Cook mistakenly thought the on-field decision was onside, so did not correct the blunder.

Liverpool have requested the audio from the VAR to be released. 

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