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Aston Villa lost against Nottingham Forest in the Premier League on Saturday night
The Premier League issued a vague statement on Saturday night after Aston Villa were denied a first-half penalty in their dramatic 2-1 defeat against Nottingham Forest at the City Ground. Villa took the lead just after the hour when Jhon Duran struck from outside the box. However, late goals from Nikola Milenković and Anthony Elanga snatched victory for the home side.
The game was not without controversy as with 34 minutes gone in the first half, Elliot Anderson appeared to bring Morgan Rodgers down inside the penalty area. The referee waved play on while VAR looked at the incident but did not recommend any further action. According to BBC Sport, the view from VAR was that Anderson’s challenge was only a "fleeting grab" and not enough to "prevent the player playing the ball".
An official statement from the Premier League Match Centre on X read: “The referee’s call of no penalty for the challenge by Anderson on Rogers was checked and confirmed by the VAR.”
Former Aston Villa player Lee Hendrie felt that the visitors were denied a penalty. He said: “Once Rogers gets in the box you can clearly see there's a real tug [from Anderson] as he gets by him. He gets hold of him and then he yanks him back which means he loses his footing. For me, it's a penalty."
The Premier League Match Centre is an official communications channel from the top flight, with live updates from Stockley Park. Information comes directly from the VAR hub. Another VAR incident occurred in the second half as Chris Wood thought he had equalised for the hosts after 81 minutes but a lengthy check by Stockley Park ruled that Elanga was offside in the build-up. Another statement from the Match Centre read: “The referee’s call of goal was checked by the VAR, who determined that Elanga was in an offside position in the build-up. The goal was then disallowed.”
Forest would not be denied as Milenković hauled the home side level after 87 minutes with Elanga netting the winner in the third minute of stoppage time.
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