In the 90+8 minute of the "Capital derby" match between Hanoi FC and Hanoi Police in round 4 of V.League 2024-2025 (October 19), referee Nguyen Manh Hai decided to award Hanoi FC a penalty after consulting VAR technology.
The reason was because center back Hugo Gomes elbowed Joao Pedro in the face when players from both teams were competing for the ball in the penalty area. After that, Tuan Hai successfully kicked the penalty to keep 1 point for the purple team.
After the match, coach Polking said the extra time issue caused his team to lose points: "The referee announced 6 minutes of extra time, but the actual time was more than 10 minutes and we conceded a goal during that time."
In fact, during the 6 minutes of extra time, Hanoi Police made 2 substitutions. The total time the match was stopped for 2 times was nearly 2 minutes, along with a number of "dead" ball situations.
Before Tuan Hai took the penalty, the referee team could not let the match continue due to the reactions of the players and coaching staff of the Hanoi Police club.
Even Mr. Polking's assistant Luis Viegas refused to leave the technical cabin despite being dismissed from duty (2 yellow cards).
Article 7 of the Laws of the Game on “playing time” clearly states that if a penalty kick is taken during extra time, or at the moment of preparation for the end of the match, the match time must be extended until the penalty kick is completed.
This confirms that the decision to recognize Tuan Hai's goal in the 14th minute of injury time was correct.
VAR was not the main factor causing the extra time to last 14 minutes, because the time from when VAR intervened to when referee Nguyen Manh Hai made the decision only lasted more than 1 minute.
