Revealed: Why VAR check that ruled out Man City's goal against Newcastle

The PGMOL has confirmed that a failure in VAR's semi-automated offside technology contributed to the eyebrow-raising delay of over five minutes as officials scrambled to decide whether Antoine Semenyo's second goal for Man City against Newcastle should be chalked off.

The deliberation brought Tuesday evening's first-leg Carabao Cup semi-final between the Premier League rivals to a halt and later sparked the ire of Pep Guardiola after the final whistle.

But a statement from the referees' governing body confirmed that the delay was in part due to an issue with the number of players crowding the ball as it found the back of the net.

As per the Times, the PGMOL confirmed that the technology supplied by Genius Sports had been unable to judge whether the ball was offside, leaving the officials at Stockley Park to manually draw lines.

Erling Haaland was deemed to have been in an offside position in his tussle with Newcastle opposite number Malick Thiaw, with Semenyo's third strike in Man City blue eventually overturned after five minutes and 40 seconds as the officials made their call.

The Premier League was one of the last of Europe's top-flight divisions to introduce semi-automated offside technology, with Fifa first using the technology at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

The technology made its debut on English soil in April last year, but does not utilise the same technique as the same technology used by Fifa and Uefa, which involves placing a microchip in the match ball.

This in turn determines the exact location of the ball and when it was kicked, ensuring that the movement of other proximate players cannot derail the technology.

The PGMOL went on to stress that the Premier League sees checks last an average of 50 seconds, with efforts made over the past two seasons to ensure the prompt delivery of their VAR deliberations.

Man City ran out the 2-0 winners regardless of the ruling thanks to a goal in the dying minutes of the game by summer signing Rayan Cherki.

But Guardiola was nonetheless incensed that such a long pause in play took place.

When asked whether Semenyo should have doubled City's lead, Guardiola said: 'It's a good question. I would like to know why VAR in 60 minutes in the Premier League game at Newcastle, when we lost 2-1, it was an insane penalty on (Fabian) Schar for (Phil) Foden an not even a consideration.

'After 20 minutes there was an incredible foul on Jeremy Doku. Today four people were not able to decide but the second goal that Newcastle scored (in November) was perfect. I'm not suspicious of that in 10 years, I didn't say anything when we lost here.

'I didn't say anything in the FA Cup Final (when Crystal Palace keeper Dean Henderson was not sent-off for handling outside the box). I didn't say anything after (no) red card. OK, it's fine. But the fact that we don't say it. I'm pretty sure Howard Webb is going to come in tomorrow.'

Guardiola continued: 'The margin was so small, the frame touched the ball to score a second goal, that was tight too. They won deservedly the Premier League game but why did it intervene in those two moments and today it was more than six minutes. They will call me and explain it to me.'