Bournemouth news: Iraola angered by VAR and Leeds equaliser

Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola was adamant that Leeds United’s late equaliser should not have stood and it was not a “difficult decision” to overturn the goal for offside.

Sean Longstaff scored in stoppage time to halt the Cherries’ momentum and take away their chance of moving into the top six. The decision to grant the goal after Joel Piroe was standing in an offside position was contentious, with both Iraola and Bournemouth attacker David Brooks saying it should not have stood.

Speaking to BBC Radio Solent after the game, Iraola said: “The keeper watches Longstaff and Piroe’s body positions himself on the line of the vision of the ball. He would have saved the goal if that player is not there.

“Here is not subjective. Everyone in every room thinks it makes it more difficult for Petrovic to save that one. Yes, it is offside, and I suppose it’s more difficult to call it life.

“All the bench, we were really convinced it was going to be offside. The VAR is watching. It is not even a super difficult decision. They want to make it look like it’s a difficult decision. It’s not a difficult decision. It affects the keeper, it’s offside. It is what it is, and the ball goes in between the view.”

Brooks also disputed the decision to allow the equaliser after the game: “We don’t usually get highlights straight away but all of us have gone straight in and had a look and the keeper has had to jump and jump over him to see where the ball is. I don’t understand why, whether he’s going to save it or not is irrelevant. He can’t see where the ball is. He can’t even make a genuine attempt to even try and save it.

“There’s a lot of goals that get disallowed over the course of the season for that and I’m not sure why it’s at our ground where we don’t get the decision. I think there were a lot of decisions that were on the fence and didn’t go our way on any of them.”

Listen to the full interview with Andoni Iraola here and David Brooks here

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