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FA Cup Final: Ben Chilwell's equaliser is dramatically ruled out by VAR for offside

  /  autty

Ben Chilwell was dramatically denied an last-gasp equalising goal in the FA Cup Final against his former club Leicester after VAR deemed the Chelsea full-back to be offside in the build-up.

The Foxes took the lead with a stunning goal from Youri Tielemans, who's screamer in front of 21,000 fans at Wembley left Chelsea chasing the game.

Tielemans' goal controversially stood after Ayoze Perez appeared to handle the ball in the build-up before the Belgian midfielder scored one of the best FA Cup Final goals to date.

Then, with the minutes ticking away, Chelsea thought they had an equaliser through Chilwell, who was picked out on the left-hand side by a cross-field ball by Thiago Silva.

As the former Leicester man burst into the area, he tried to put the ball into the danger area past an on-rushing Kasper Schmeichel, with the ball eventually falling to Leicester's Caglar Soyuncu.

However, Soyuncu's clearance was met by a falling Chilwell, who managed to unknowingly direct into the back of the Foxes' net.

Frantic celebrations ensued from the Chelsea players and their fans, while Leicester heads dropped with less than a minute of normal time to be played.

Before play could restart, VAR intervened and spotted that Chilwell was in an offside position when Silva played the cross-field ball.

The replays showed it was close, while Chelsea fans were left dismayed at the call.

Fans on Twitter hit out at the men in Stockley Park, claiming that Chilwell was not offside and that the goal should have stood.

One fan tweeted: 'Chilwell’s arm is offside, as far as I know you can’t score with your arm.'

Another added: 'Sorry no. That’s onside, not only is he in line with the defender, his making the run for the ball, His body is going to be leaning forward, to give him forward momentum. VAR got this wrong.'

Other Chelsea fans agreed, claiming the fractional VAR calls are 'utterly appalling'.

One said: 'He is level. The tech simply isnt able to accurately make those fractional mm offside decisions. This VAR nonsense is utterly appalling and killing the raw emotion of what makes football so amazing.'

With five minutes added on as a result, Leicester managed to hold on to win their first ever FA Cup in their history.

While Leicester fans were left thanking their lucky stars, goalscorer Tielemans was also praising the controversial technology.

'What a moment. I’m really happy with this,' Tielemans said at the final whistle. 'I can’t think of a better goal than this. It was a really nice goal to score in the final. I did it for all the Leicester fans.

'Khun’s father would be very proud. It’s his legacy. I’m really happy watching the fans from home. Now we can celebrate. Thank you VAR! What an amazing thing that is.

'It was tight, but it was offside (the Chelsea goal). I think he [Schmeichel] made two great saves. He kept us in the game. We saw it through. It’s a really big game for us and then hopefully we can celebrate this season.'