An infuriated Antonio Conte stormed out of his post-game press conference after being asked just one question following Tottenham Hotspur's 1-1 draw with Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League.
Following earlier strikes from Marcus Edwards and Rodrigo Bentancur, Harry Kane thought he had sent Tottenham through to the knockout stages with a goal in the fifth minute of second-half injury time.
The ball was flicked onto the England captain at close range from Emerson Royal and he finished into the side of the net, but Danny Makkelie was then instructed to wait for a VAR review.
After a few minutes, Kane's goal was eventually disallowed for a tight offside call, leaving Tottenham players, staff and fans enraged as Conte received a late red card.
The result means that Tottenham missed the chance to wrap up qualification for the last-16 with a game to spare, and Conte was in no mood to stick around after the full-time whistle.
Tottenham boss Antonio Conte answered ONE question in his post-match press conference before storming out. 😡 pic.twitter.com/7FezOdPMlj
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) October 26, 2022
Before storming out of his post-game press conference, the 53-year-old hit out at the "unfair" decision to disallow his side's late winner and claimed that VAR creates "big damage".
"I repeat you know I don't comment on referee decision but the VAR, this season, I don't know why between Premier League and Champions League, we are not so lucky," football.london quotes Conte as saying.
"I don't know why until now we are also the only team who repeated the penalty and every penalty I go to see, if the keeper move on line, I see a lot of the time. I want to see repetition of a penalty in Premier League. I think we are not so lucky with VAR but I think they create big damage.
"I would like to see if this type of decision you can take with a top team, in an important game, yeah I would like to see if VAR is so brave to take this decision. I repeat this unfair decision because the ball is in front of Kane.
"Sorry, but I am really upset because sometimes you can accept this situation and sometimes I think it is not good because I don't see honesty in this type of situation and when I see this I become really, really upset.
"For the game we played first half with low intensity and Sporting deserve to stay 1-0 up and at the end of the game after our second half I think we deserved to get three points. Now for this decision we have to wait to the last game against Marseille and I repeat this decision, yeah creates big damage.
© Reuters
"I hope the club understands this and then in the right situation they also speak with the people they have to speak because otherwise it is only the manager to speak.
"I think the club has to be strong because I repeat this situation creates big, big damage. Now we don't know what happen next week. If we go out, then I want to see."
Tottenham remain at the top of Group D following Wednesday's draw, still one point clear of Sporting and two better off than Marseille, while Eintracht Frankfurt are now level on points with the Lilywhites.
Spurs will be guaranteed first place in the group if they beat Marseille at the Orange Velodrome next week, and a draw would also be enough for Conte's side to progress.
Tottenham will now aim to snap their three-game winless run in all competitions when they tackle Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium in Saturday's Premier League clash.
Ben Knapton
