Sporting coach Rui Borges unexpectedly praised the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system after his team’s 2-1 Champions League victory against Olympique Marseille, asserting the outcome would have been “totally different” without it.
Borges detailed several decisive VAR interventions that he said were crucial. He indicated the system correctly overturned a penalty call against Sporting, reversed an expulsion against them, and validated a goal that had initially been wrongly disallowed.
“Sometimes we complain so much about VAR,” Borges told Sport TV after the match, “and today if VAR didn’t exist, football would be totally, I don’t say a lie, but it would be different.”
The Lisbon club secured its second win in the Champions League group stage with the comeback victory. Marseille finished the match with 10 men.
Borges lauded his team’s “great competitive attitude” and “enormous team spirit” for turning the game around after conceding an early goal.
He highlighted the impact of substitutes, including Alisson, Geny, and Fotis, who were brought on to add acceleration and one-on-one prowess.
“The team spirit is extraordinary,” he stated, attributing the comeback to the group’s collective strength.
The coach dismissed suggestions that Sporting was in a “bad phase,” emphasizing daily effort and internal morale. “What matters is the day-to-day, the daily spirit, the joy at the academy,” he said.
Sporting now holds six points in the competition.
Borges dedicated the win to the club’s “tireless” supporters, urging them to continue believing as they did last season.