How Manchester United benefitted from VAR blunder

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Manchester United benefited from a referee blunder in their Premier League opener with Wolves, says chief refereeing officer Howard Webb.

The Reds beat Wolves 1-0 in their season opener with Raphael Varane's header settling the contest. But Gary O'Neil's side had the better of the game and felt they should have been given a chance to level in the closing stages when Andre Onana collided with Sasa Kalajdzic in stoppage time.

Referee Simon Hooper opted against giving a foul while VAR official Michael Salisbury upheld the decision. The audio between the pair was played as part of an episode of ‘Match Officials Mic’d Up’ on Sky Sports on Tuesday, showing viewers some of the VAR decisions from the opening month of the season. ALSO READ: United chaos means Ten Hag faces a test like no other On the show, Webb said Hooper should have been sent to the screen and if he had been, a spot-kick would likely have been awarded. "I think from the outset I want to say that should have led to an intervention by VAR which should have seen a video review being recommended and the referee should have gone to the screen," said Webb. "I'm confident he would have seen the images we've seen and awarded a penalty. "We see the VAR going through the checking phase while the penalty is not awarded.

He starts to go down the road of recommending a review, but then he sort of overthinks it a little bit. "Sometimes VARs can do that.