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Sometimes the video assistant referee just cannot win, stuck in a hole between what feels right in the spirit of the game and what is correct in law.

Manchester City thought they had scored a third goal at Liverpool which would have capped off one of the most dramatic ends to a Premier League game this season.

But it was stripped away by a VAR review for a foul committed just before the ball rolled over the line.

Fans will hate it, pundits won’t like it, and football will turn its nose up too. Yet there really was no way the VAR, John Brooks, could not intervene.

A foul was committed that facilitated a goal being scored which might have otherwise been prevented. It is really as simple as that.

It was a unique set of circumstances right at the end of a dramatic game which gave City a 2-1 win at Anfield.

With Alisson marooned upfield for a set-piece as Liverpool searched for a late equaliser, Rayan Cherki kicked the ball towards an empty net.

Haaland gave chase and was clearly going to outpace Dominik Szoboszlai.

The City striker had overtaken Szoboszlai 25 yards from goal and looked certain to win the race – but he was pulled back.

It was a clear foul which referee Craig Pawson identified, but he played an advantage.

As the ball rolled towards the goal with the same two players still jostling to reach it, Liverpool’s Hungary international was about to slide in and clear it off the line.

Before Szoboszlai could do so, however, Haaland pulled him back, and that stopped the home player from keeping the ball out of the net.

The first pull on Haaland muddies the waters. After all, it seemed Haaland was definitely going to score.

But they are two distinct situations. You have to separate the first foul by Szoboszlai and the subsequent offence from Haaland.

Would Szoboszlai have prevented the goal had he not been fouled? There is a high chance.

On that basis it is impossible for the goal to stand.

Remember that Pawson played advantage. Had Szoboszlai been allowed to successfully keep the ball out, the play would have been brought back and he would have been sent off.

The end result would be the same as the outcome of the VAR intervention: no goal and Szoboszlai sent off for denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity.

If you take out the first pull on Haaland, it is hard to see how anyone could have a problem with the goal being disallowed.

This is not the first time, or the last, that the VAR has correctly disallowed a goal and people really struggle to stomach it.

While the video assistant referee’s intervention was ultimately correct, leading to Pawson to announce the decision to both teams and the fans, it certainly split the crowd.

Former Manchester United defender Gary Neville, who was covering the game for Sky Sports, said it “feels so unjust”.

He added: “I know there’s rules but there is the smell of the game. Talk about killjoy. Just let the goal be.

“You have just killed one of the great moments of the season.

“You live to watch games like this. I am a fan of VAR, but it has just killed the joy.

“The reason fans watch football matches is for entertainment and for moments like that.”

But ex-Manchester United captain Roy Keane said, if anything, the moment “just added to the drama” and described it as “great”.

Liverpool boss Arne Slot would not be drawn on the incident, but City forward Haaland said he actually felt sorry for Szoboszlai.

“The referee has to follow the rules,” Haaland told Sky Sports. “I feel bad for him. Just give the goal and not the red card, simple as that.

“But that’s the rules and that’s how it is.”

Chelsea manager Sonia Bompastor has not had many tougher weeks in her managerial career.

Having fallen 12 points adrift of Women’s Super League (WSL) leaders Manchester City, suffering back-to-back defeats in the process, pressure was at its highest.

She faced backlash from her own supporters, questions over her position at the club, and anything other than victory at Tottenham would have been a disaster.

The club rallied around the Frenchwoman, who led Chelsea to an unbeaten domestic treble in her debut season, by announcing she had signed a four-year contract extension 48 hours before their crucial game at Spurs.

That was the backing she needed and Bompastor could breathe a sigh of relief – and even celebrate animatedly – as her side got over the line with a 2-0 win.

“Even if we all know we can’t control anything of that, we probably felt it was unfair to receive that amount of criticism,” said Bompastor.

“I know who I am, I don’t need people outside my environment to tell me who I am. I will always make sure I give my best. I know I have the competence, I know I have the knowledge, I know the women’s game and I do my best for Chelsea.

“I’m not saying I’m the best one, I’m not saying I’m arrogant, but I know who I am. I always make sure I support my players in the best way possible.

With the WSL title seemingly out of their grasp, Chelsea’s priority is to ensure they clinch a top-three spot and qualification for next season’s Champions League.

Rivals Arsenal and Manchester United did their part earlier in the weekend – so Chelsea had to respond.

Tottenham, who started the game a point behind Chelsea, came out of the blocks firing and could have taken the lead when Olivia Holdt hit the crossbar.

Nervy Chelsea were in a battle until Keira Walsh’s goal just before half-time rocked Spurs and put the Blues in the driving seat. It was the “game-changer” they needed.

“When you want to perform at your best, you need to have the four elements of the performance align at the highest level – the tactical, mental, physical and technical aspects,” said Bompastor.

“If one of them, or some of them, are not as high as possible, it affects the performance. We were a different team in the second half. That’s who we want to be.”

Bompastor’s actions were deliberate on Sunday. After the warm-up, she walked out on to the pitch and high-fived every member of her squad.

She celebrated with assistant coach Meline Gerard, who lifted her up and spun her around in the dugout, when Walsh’s goal put Chelsea 1-0 up – something she rarely does, but said afterwards she should do more.

In normal circumstances, a victory at Tottenham would be seen as par for the course. But this was three points which gave Chelsea a significant boost.

“I will enjoy it. I’m not going to lie, it’s been a difficult time. It’s been tough so we need to celebrate with players and staff,” said Bompastor.

“We know when we are at Chelsea we need to win every game and we want, as much as possible, to be in control. To do that, we need to get points to win.

Chelsea’s performance still left much to be desired but Bompastor said she was “really proud” of how her players dealt with the unfamiliar criticism.

The Blues have won six successive domestic titles so most in the squad have never experienced a season without silverware.

They have already booked their place in the Women’s League Cup final, have a fifth-round FA Cup tie to play and are in the Champions League quarter-finals.

If they win a European crown – the one trophy that has eluded them – their WSL blip will be quickly forgotten.

But experienced midfielder Erin Cuthbert said the overall feeling was “relief” after the Spurs victory – and this was unknown territory for the serial winners.

“It’s been a tough couple of weeks, an experience that some of us haven’t been used to. Over the 10 years I’ve been here, we’ve had moments like this,” Cuthbert told BBC Two.

“The league’s getting better and we’ve played against two top teams who probably beat us quite convincingly. It was back to the drawing board this week.

“We didn’t want to be a Chelsea team who bow down game after game. That’s not what we’re about, that’s not what we’re built upon.

Snowboarding sensation Mia Brookes – one of Great Britain’s most exciting medal prospects at the Winter Olympics – shrugged off an early hiccup to seal her spot in the big air final.

Despite overcooking the landing on her opening run, Brookes cut her usual relaxed figure as she scored a combined 167 points from her two attempts, to qualify in third place.

Although only 19 years old, an Olympic medal is the only accolade missing from Brookes’ collection, having already won World Championship and double X Games gold – both in her preferred slopestyle.

Should Brookes win a medal of any colour in Monday’s final (18:30 GMT), she would become Britain’s youngest Winter Olympic medallist for 78 years.

“I got it down, but it was a pretty scary one,” she told BBC Sport.

“Second run, I was like ‘I’ve got to land this one or else, four years until the next one’.”

Asked how it felt to reach her first Olympic final, she said: “I think I’m more relieved that I landed the tricks. It’s pretty sick.

Brookes was too young to compete at the last Winter Olympics, four years ago, but she has hit her sport’s greatest heights since.

In 2023, aged just 16, she became snowboarding’s youngest world champion with her slopestyle gold in Georgia, a victory sealed by landing the first Cab 1440 double grab in a women’s event.

Last month she won her second title at the X Games, the invitation-only holy grail of action sports.

“They see her as a legit one of the best to ever do it,” said BBC Sport commentator Tim Warwood before the Games. “She’s a purist’s dream.

“When she’s strapped into a snowboard, you can tell that’s what she was put on this planet to do.”

Brookes’ team-mate Maisie Hill, also making her Olympic debut, placed 29th to miss out on the final.

But while Hill’s big air campaign may be over, she and Brookes will return for the slopestyle from 16 February.

Just becoming an Olympian marks an incredible achievement for 24-year-old Hill, after she nearly died in a training crash three years ago.

She broke multiple bones, including her spine and pelvis, and suffered a grade three laceration in her liver that caused heavy blood loss after the crash into a wall of ice during a training session in Switzerland in January 2023.

“I was leaving hospital three years ago today. I’m pretty proud of myself,” Hill told BBC Sport.

Assessing her runs, she added: “I’m pretty upset, it was going so well all of practice.

“I’m so happy to be here. It’s been so fun. I’ve enjoyed it so much. I feel so blessed.

Bruce Mouat had hoped to create “some drama in the stands”, and he and Jen Dodds did just that by beating hosts and defending mixed doubles curling Olympic champions Italy 9-6 to silence the Cortina Curling Stadium.

A 7-6 defeat by Switzerland earlier on Sunday was Team GB’s first loss after a stellar start to the competition, with seven successive wins, sealed their own progress to the last four with two games to spare, and the Scottish pair were keen to right that wrong.

They also wanted to further stamp their authority on the competition by topping the round-robin table to ensure they have the advantage of the hammer – the last stone – in Monday’s semi-final, which will be against either the Italians or Sweden.

That will be live on the BBC at 18:05 GMT, with the British pair’s opponents being confirmed after the final round-robin matches earlier on Monday.

The Italians were not short of motivation either for the tussle with the GB pair, with their qualification not yet secure, and they started strongly with two in the first end.

However, a scrappy second by Amos Mosaner and Stefania Constantini – on the ice where she learned the game as a child – allowed Dodds to take three and quieten the boisterous crowd.

The Italians were in good shape in the third, but only took one, and it was a similar situation for GB in the fourth, to give them the lead at the interval.

However, Mosaner botched his final throw in the fifth in what proved a decisive moment. Constantini could only partially retrieve the situation, limiting GB to one, but that steal allowed Mouat and Dodds to open a 5-3 lead.

Italy were not done, causing the noise to come rolling down the wooden bleachers of the quirky venue by compiling a superb sixth end to take three and go back in front.

But Mouat and Dodds kept their shape, taking three in the seventh and then stealing another in the final end to close out victory.

The Italians were crestfallen but, within moments, their own place in the last four was confirmed by results on the other sheets.

“The crowd was amazing. We knew it would almost be like a third player for them and to come out with a win was extra special,” Dodds added.

Norway’s Johannes Hosflot Klaebo clinched the first of a potential six gold medals at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics in the 10km+10km skiathlon.

It takes the 29-year-old’s career Olympic gold tally to six, just two behind the all-time winter record.

That is held by the Norwegian trio of biathlete Ole Einar Bjorndalen and cross country skiers Bjorn Daehlie and Marit Bjorgen, who are all retired.

Team GB’s Andrew Musgrave was 10th in his fifth Games – just short of his best Olympic finish of seventh in 2018 – with fellow Briton Joe Davis 16th.

“I’m not going to lie, I’m a bit disappointed,” Musgrave told BBC Sport after the race.

“I felt like it was so fast on the first section and straight away I was struggling – it was hot and I was overheating.

“My chances of a good finish were over after the first lap.”