Tottenham Baffled By "Backwards" Offside Call That Could Cost Them Champions League Place

Tottenham 1-1 Sporting

There were wild scenes at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Wednesday night after Harry Kane appeared to have scored a 95th-minute winner to beat Sporting Lisbon 2-1.

Spurs fans were loving life, while Antonio Conte and his coaching staff were in a scrum celebrating with their players.

There was no time left for Sporting to equalize, so Spurs had surely sealed their place in the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League.

But then came word that the goal was subject to a VAR review.

That review took four minutes and eventually deemed that Kane had been offside.

No goal. No place in the last 16 just yet. Spurs must now win or draw at Marseille next Tuesday or face elimination from the UCL.

An action shot from Tottenham's 1-1 draw with Sporting

IMAGO/Action Plus/Shaun Brooks

Tottenham's players could not believe the decision. Nor could manager Conte, who was sent off for his complaints.

Eric Dier was seen shouting at the referee, desperately telling him that the headed pass from Emerson Royal to Kane had gone "backwards". 

Indeed it had, originally. But the ball eventually arrived in Kane's path after being knocked forwards by an unintentional deflection off Flavio Nazinho. Had Nazinho deliberately played the ball, it would have been a new phase of play and therefore onside.

There is no law that states that a player cannot be offside if the ball is played backwards.

But a player cannot be offside if they are behind the ball when it is played to them. This was Tottenham's other gripe.

To the naked eye, it looked as though Kane had been behind the ball when Royal headed it. But this was difficult to judge as the ball had been in the air.

Eventually, the VAR declared that Kane had been stood in an offside position, ahead of the ball when Royal headed it and also that Nazinho's touch had been unintentional.

After all that, Tottenham remained top of Group D but not in a safe position. They can still be leapfrogged by fourth-placed Marseille in matchweek 6.

Conte is likely to be banned for the game in Marseille as a consequence of his sending off.

The Spurs boss was still furious in his press conference after the game.

"I would like to see if you can take this type of decision with a top team in an important game," he said. "I would like to see if VAR is so brave to take this decision.

"The ball is in front of Kane. I'm sorry but I'm really upset because you can assess the situation.

"I don't see honesty in this type of situation. When I don't see this, I become really upset."

Defender Matt Doherty had earlier told BT Sport: "I think you can see by the celebrations we thought we won it.

"I don't really know what happened at the end.

"I thought if it went backwards and hit a defender it's a different phase of play.

"I don't know. I'm going to have to look at the rule book. A few of us don't have a clue what just happened."

Despite the upsetting ending, the result could have been a lot worse for Conte's side.

They fell behind in the 22nd minute when former Spurs academy player Marcus Edwards beat Hugo Lloris from long range.

It took Tottenham until the 80th minute to level when Rodrigo Bentancur headed home from an Ivan Perisic corner.

Sporting ended the night second in Group D. To go through to the last 16, they must win at Eintracht Frankfurt next week, or draw and hope that Marseille beat Spurs.