Juventus get shirty against Salernitana as VAR has a normal one

With all football matches from the top down to grassroots in the UK postponed over the weekend, fans of the game with no interest in cricket, golf, horse racing, rugby union, rugby league or any of the other sports that went ahead without anyone literally bursting with pomposity or self-righteous indignation had to seek their jollies elsewhere. With games on the continent taking place as usual, there were no shortage of options to put the VAR-related omnishambles of the Premier League behind them, watching matches from various leagues where it is always implemented correctly and quickly, despite there being no real need for it because foreign officials are all famously so much better than their English counterparts.

To Turin, then, where out-of-sorts and struggling Juventus were on the brink of an embarrassing home defeat to Plucky Little Salernitana, trailing 2-1 in the third minute of added time. With many of their fans having already exited in disgust, Leonardo Bonucci, 73, displayed agility and sprightliness unbecoming of a man of his years, to acrobatically turn home the rebound to a penalty originally saved by Salernitana keeper Luigi Sepe. Not content with this late, late leveller, Juve rediscovered the fabled grit that has been conspicuously absent from their performances over the past year and went on to bag an unlikely winner two minutes later. It was Arkadiusz Milik who prompted pandemonium with a header from a corner that sailed across the bows of Sepe and sent Juve’s fans into what in football parlance is commonly known as “dreamland”.

Already on a booking, the jubilant Pole was sent off for removing his shirt in the celebrations, but seemed untroubled as he high-fived various teammates and received the