Patrick Vieira said the decision to disallow Christian Benteke’s goal against Newcastle United on Saturday was a harsh one from the officials. The Belgian had risen highest from a corner in the 88th minute and headed past Karl Darlow for the second time in the match to give Palace a late lead, only for VAR to disallow it due to a foul in the area. The replays showed Marc Guehi had a hold of Ciaran Clark, preventing the defender from challenging Benteke for the ball from the corner. Immediately after the match, Vieira walked onto the pitch to speak to the officials and afterwards said that although he disagreed with the decision he would have to make peace with it.
Patrick Viera said: “When I went back to the dressing room I saw the incident. That was a decision that maybe was too hard, too harsh on us. [But] that is the view of the referee and we have to accept it and move on.”
Vieira was also upset with how his side performed in front of goal, with Palace wasting several chances to score and put the game to bed against Newcastle. Benteke hit the post twice and shot wide after going clean through against Darlow, while substitute Wilfried Zaha failed to make the desired impact after coming off the bench for Michael Olise in the second half.
Patrick Viera added: “When you play the way we did today and when you look at the number of chances we created, and at the end, you just get one point, we are frustrated. I think we did enough to take three points. We were unlucky to concede the goal the way we did. On the other side, we need to improve, to be more clinical in front of goal. We had enough chances to score more than one goal.”
