#var

#var

VAR ruled a Victor Osimhen goal out for offside moments before M'Mombwa equalised for the Taifa Stars, despite initially appearing to be in an offside position himself, briefly giving the East Africans hope of a result in their tournament opener. In a wet Fes, the Super Eagles enjoyed the better of the opening exchanges, with in-form Samuel Chukwueze particularly lively and firing straight at goalkeeper Zuberi Masudi early on.

Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe said his side were denied a "stonewall" penalty in their 2-2 draw with Chelsea - so, does he have a point? Chelsea defender Trevoh Chalobah barged Newcastle winger Anthony Gordon to the ground inside the penalty area in the 53rd minute at St James' Park. Howe and the home fans demanded a penalty but, following a Video Assistant Referee (VAR) review, the on-field decision not to award a penalty was upheld.

My opinion, and this is not just about Aberdeen, but for the whole Scottish Premiership, is that if it takes four minutes to make a decision, it's not clear and obvious," Cormack told BBC Scotland.

You could see straight away that they were out for revenge, keen on proving themselves against a strong team. Indeed, the Rossonere created the first dangerous chance of the game in the 23rd minute, as Thea Kyvåg found Evelyn Ijeh in the box. The Swede headed the ball towards goal but ended up hitting the crossbar, coming very close to giving Milan the lead.

Fifa is set to press ahead with plans to have VAR checks on the awarding of corner kicks at the 2026 World Cup despite domestic leagues rejecting the idea for the wider game. At an October meeting of the International Football Association Board (Ifab) - which determines the laws of the game - there was agreement that VAR could be expanded to cover incorrectly shown second yellow cards that lead to a red.

With the Republic of Ireland defending their box, a coming together between Republic of Ireland's Dara O'Shea and Ronaldo, left the Ireland defender on the floor. Ronaldo made a crying gesture and signaled it was a dive, but Swedish referee Nyberg awarded a free kick against him and produced a yellow card for adopting an aggressive attitude.

There were many interesting talking points from the dramatic stalemate between Arsenal and Chelsea Alyssa Thompson's stunning goal for the Blues, the impressive defensive performance of Lotte Wubben-Moy, the 56,537-strong crowd, Chelsea's choice of a back four over a back five, Arsenal's decision not to play with a natural No 6 but, disappointingly, it is the quality of the officiating that has and will dominate.

VAR is always going to face accusations of being inconsistent, because its role is not to create consistency of decision-making but judge individual incidents based upon the on-field call. So it can be helpful to understand what VAR is looking for and why similar situations can have opposing outcomes. From the penalty awarded to Manchester City against Liverpool, to Dan Burn's challenges on Dango Ouattara and Brighton's overturned spot-kick at Crystal Palace, we saw a whole range.

Just six minutes into the game, a shot from Fermin struck the Celta Vigo defender and went out for a corner. And Alberola Rojas received a warning from the VAR room in Las Rozas: "Javi, it's Valen. Look, I recommend a review so you can assess a potential handball penalty. I'm going to start with the point of impact and then give you the details," the VAR official said.

In the end, we were not talking about the football, players, or implications on the title race, as Arsenal vs. Chelsea ended in a 1-1 draw on Saturday afternoon. Despite it being arguably the biggest clash of the Women's Super League (WSL) season, between two of the top teams (the reigning domestic champions and reigning European champions), we were instead left talking about some dreadful officiating decisions that completely overshadowed what should have been a massive high-stakes clash.

No, not at all, far off. No one can get close to them, so no, the 25-year-old said. This season Haaland has already scored 26 times in 16 appearances in all competitions, registering 13 Premier League strikes, four in the Champions League, and nine for Norway. City could play a maximum of 52 more games this term, while Norway could have 12 more matches if they reach the World Cup final plus a yet to be decided number of friendlies.

What happened: Nottingham Forest defender Nicolò Savona headed clear from a Bryan Mbeumo cross. With the ball running towards the corner flag and seemingly out of play, Savona appeared to have made up enough ground to keep the ball in. Assistant referee Howson disagreed, however, and awarded a corner kick in United's favor from the opposite side of the pitch, much to the displeasure of the Forest players and supporters at that end of the City Ground.