Sunday 18 August 2019 19:18, UK
Kevin De Bruyne admitted he was confused by the handball rules after Manchester City were denied a dramatic late winner against Tottenham by VAR.
The Premier League champions thought they had snatched a 3-2 victory in injury time at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday but Gabriel Jesus' strike was disallowed on review for a handball by Aymeric Laporte.
Replays showed the ball had brushed off the top of the City defender's arm as a cross came in, which under new interpretations has to be penalised - regardless of whether the handball was deliberate or not - because it led to a goal.
De Bruyne does not feel the rule is consistent because, had the ball hit a Tottenham player's arm in the same manner instead of Laporte's, play would have been allowed to continue.
"It is what it is," the Belgian said of VAR. "If they want to make football better they should have it. But I think the only thing - the rules should be clear. If the ball had touched somebody of Tottenham's arm it's not a penalty, but if it touched our arm it is not allowed.
"It should go both ways in something like that. I don't understand that as a player. It makes it really confusing."
The incident meant City had to settle for a 2-2 draw from a game they completely dominated, racking up 30 shots to Spurs' three.
De Bruyne set up goals for Raheem Sterling and Sergio Aguero but the visitors responded through Erik Lamela and Lucas Moura. That ended City's run of 15 successive Premier League wins but the 28-year-old was not too downhearted.
"Obviously we're disappointed about the result but not about the way we played," he said. "We played really well and deserved to win but it happens. We have to look forward. The way we played was really good and to get to this level so early in the season is good.
"We should have scored one more, we had enough opportunities to score.
"That really doesn't bother me because to create them is even more difficult and I know on another day we can score more goals."
