Shropshire Star

Wolves midfielder Mario Lemina demands VAR ‘honesty’

Mario Lemina has called on the officials to be ‘honest about the rules’ after Wolves’ latest VAR scandal.

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Mario Lemina (Photo by Wolverhampton Wanderers FC/Wolves via Getty Images).

A second-half Luton penalty denied Wolves all three points, but the spot-kick was awarded against Joao Gomes for handball, despite the ball careering off his foot and on to his hand.

In the current laws of the game, referees have been told not to give penalties in those instances and, while Lemina says the players are now confused by the constant changing of the laws, he has also called on the officials to speak publicly on the latest controversy.

He said: “The ball clearly touched the leg before the hand and the rules are the rules.

“For me they need to check and they have to be honest about these rules because we don’t really understand the rules.

“Every time it changed and we don’t really understand. He didn’t explain anything. He didn’t want to talk to us. He just said ‘go away, it’s a clear penalty’.”

Regardless of that penalty incident, Wolves put in a poor display in the first half that the hosts should have punished.

A spirited second half with 10 men saw them leave with a point, and Lemina was brutally honest on the performance his side put in.

He said: “We need to be more consistent to be honest. I love the group and I love the players we’ve got but we were really bad in the first half.

“Luton controlled the game and we were struggling to build up the game.

“In the second half we played with our hearts and in the dressing room we said a lot of things. We were committed and all together. We scored the goal and tried not to concede but it’s hard with one man less. We gave everything on the pitch and we have to take the draw.”