Away from the er, delights of the Aviva Stadium tonight, France and Spain are playing a friendly game in Paris. Friendly matches are usually utterly pointless and instantly forgettable, but chances are that this game will be remembered for quite some time, owing to some experimentation. A video review system is on trial, and we saw it in action before the half-time whistle.
Antoine Griezmann headed past David De Gea, with the referee content to award the goal. A quick review of the footage while Griezmann was off celebrating, however, showed that he was marginally offside when the ball was delivered, and thus the goal was disallowed.
Here's how it played out, via ITV:
?An example of how video assistant refs could be used going forward...
Griezmann scores but the video ref rules it out for offside: pic.twitter.com/r0IswV6EyI
— ITV Football (@itvfootball) March 28, 2017
The efficiency of it all impressed Jamie Carragher:
Goal disallowed in #FRAESP video technology sorted it out in 10 seconds!
— Jamie Carragher (@Carra23) March 28, 2017
The future has arrived.
