Video Assistant Referee makes its UEFA Champions League debut in January, so supporters of Manchester United, Manchester City, and maybe Spurs and/or Liverpool can rest assured they have a lesser chance of seeing an unjust exit to the competition.
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UEFA boss Aleksander Ceferin said implementation is ready quicker than expected. From UEFA.com:
“We are ready to use VAR earlier than initially planned and we are convinced that it will be beneficial for our competitions as it will provide valuable help to match officials and will allow to reduce incorrect decisions.”
Pep Guardiola was asked about the development during his Monday briefing ahead of a Tuesday match at Watford:“I am delighted with it. The Premier League is the last one and sooner or later it will happen. The second goal against Shakhtar was a ridiculous penalty. With VAR, we are looking to make better decisions most of the time. The referee won’t always do a good job. Everyone makes mistakes but with this we can correct them in three seconds.”
We imagine most of his 15 peers in the knockout rounds will agree with this assessment (at least until VAR overturns a referee mistake that hurts their clubs).