Tottenham's clash against Liverpool should have been stopped as soon as officials realised that Luis Diaz's first half strike was wrongly disallowed, according to reports.
Liverpool were left furious after their 2-1 loss to Ange Postecoglou's side was marred by a series of controversial calls - namely the decision to chalk off Diaz's goal, with a major mix-up seeing VAR failing to intervene over the offside call because they thought the Colombian's strike had been awarded.
Just seconds after the goal was disallowed and Spurs took a resulting free kick, officials became aware about the error, with 'panic setting in', but decided not to go against VAR protocols and allowed the game to continue.
However, ESPN claims the game should have been halted and the mistake corrected in order the 'achieve the fairest outcome for the game' in line with the laws of the game - but that opportunity was missed, it says.
It goes on to say that both the VAR team and management team failed to react - with the latter having the chance to demand that the game be rolled back.
There has been outcry over the contentious game that saw two red cards handed out to Curtis Jones and Diogo Jota while Reds supporters were also left unimpressed by fouls missed, penalties not given and harsh yellow cards handed out.
The PGMOL have since apologised for the 'significant human error' that saw Diaz's strike disallowed, with officials Darren England and Dan Cook dropped for upcoming fixtures as a result.
Liverpool responded by stressing that it was 'unacceptable' to blame human error for the incident as VAR was supposed to eleviate pressure facing officials - adding that it would be exploring 'all options' and demanding 'escalation and resolution'.
As the aftermath
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