Reason why Dean Henderson escaped red card as Wayne Rooney fumes 'get rid of VAR'

Crystal Palace goalkeeper Dean Henderson appeared fortunate not to have been shown a red card during his side's FA Cup final clash with Manchester City. The 28-year-old palmed the ball outside of his penalty area to prevent Erling Haaland from racing on to a long ball, but VAR not to intervene.

The decision left City baffled, as well as the BBC punditry team, who were convinced that Henderson had denied a clear goal scoring opportunity by slapping the ball out of his reach. However, VAR were not convinced.

Speaking on BBC Sport, Gary Lineker explained the decision, saying: "This is what VAR have said. We've been in contact with them and they said, 'The direction Haaland was going made it a possible, but not an obvious, goalscoring opportunity.' I've never heard the word obvious used for denying a goalscoring opportunity before. The only one I would say is likelihood of keeping or gaining control of the ball, that's the only one I think they could probably have argued. There's no doubt Haaland touched it ahead of Henderson, it would have been a soft touch, he would have had a goalscoring opportunity."

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