At the end of round one, the world witnessed plenty of drama and actions in the FIFA World Cup 2018 held in Russia. While most of the action was seen on the field, some off-stadium decisions also played a major role in the most popular event in the world.

Making their first World Cup appearance, Iceland managed to hold Messi-led Argentina. The World Cup holders’ curse continued as Germany slumped to a shock 0-1 defeat against Mexico. Ronaldo stole points from Spain with a breathtaking free-kick to level terms. Harry Kane headed home a last-gasp winner to give England a 2-1 win over Tunisia while Japan shocked Columbia 2-1.

There were plenty of topics to talk about. But, none managed to gain consistent headlines as much as the technology. It was the newly introduced Video Assistance Referees (VAR) and Goal-line technology which stole the limelight at the end of the Round 1 of the FIFA World Cup.

The tech came into picture on Day 2 when it helped the officials to give a penalty to France before the goal-line technology awarded Paul Pogba’s goal which bounced vertically off Australia’s crossbar, almost unclear to naked eye to judge. The French coach Didier Deschamps expressed his contentment over the use of the video reviewing system.

“I'm not going to complain about VAR because it was in our favour. The referee didn't see that there was a foul and he was able to correct when he reviewed it, so he was able to correct a mistake,” said Didier Deschamps.

“It's not easy with VAR. It will be useful in some situations. I didn't see the screen, I'm not allowed to go to the screen or replay it. I will have the opportunity," added Deschamps.

VAR yet again made headlines when Sweden were awarded a penalty which earned them a 1-0 win over South Korea. The Sweden captain tucked home in the 65th minute of the Group F clash in Nizhny Novgorod after technology was used to rule that Viktor Claesson had been fouled in the area.

On Tuesday, the goal-line technology helped to confirm what everyone else thought wasn’t when Quintero’s free-kick crossed the line before Japan custodian Kawashima frantically tried to get across his line to keep the ball out.

Apparently, it wasn’t all about the happy colours. While few teams rejoiced VAR, the technology reared the ugly heads too. Despite their 2-1 win, England star striker was twice denied off clear penalties. Had it not been for the late winner, the VAR decisions would have been costing the Three Lions two valuable points. 

English referee Mark Clattenberg lashed out at the inconsistency showed by those who make decisions behind the screen. “Last night showed major inconsistency from the referee and video referee team,” said Mark Clattenburg, who refereed the Euro 2016 final.

“The referee wasn’t looking at the incident – which is normal as a lot goes on at corners – but the VAR not giving England a penalty retrospectively was a wrong call. It was a stonewall penalty,” said Clattenberg requesting FIFA to intervene in the same in his blog.

The Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) too showed their concerns over the usage of VAR as they asked FIFA why the video assistant referee wasn’t used to review two key decisions they believed hindered their side during the 1-1 draw with Switzerland.

“The CBF requires to know from FIFA the reason the technology was not used in key incidents during the game,” the organisation said in a statement. VAR is being used in the World Cup for the first time and, according to FIFA, should only correct clear and obvious errors and missed incidents in clearly defined match-changing decisions.