Six observations from the 2018 World Cup

#4 VAR still does not answer all the questions

Despite all the gains made by the use of VAR at this year's World Cup, it still accrued its fair share of controversy, none bigger than in the final where Argentine referee Nestor Pitana decided to penalize Ivan Perisic for handball in the box after VAR review.

Coach Zlatko Dalic felt aggrieved by the referee's decision and he was not alone, as a major debate raged online by pundits and fans alike about the veracity of the penalty with there being an almost even split in opinion for and against the awarding of the penalty.

There were also other controversies earlier on in the tournament. Nigeria exited the World Cup after a late Marcos Rojo goal gave Argentina a 2-1 victory ensuring their qualification, but the Africans left with a bitter taste in their mouth after what they felt was an unjust decision by referee Cuneyt Cakir not to award a penalty for a handball by Marcos Rojo despite VAR review.

The ball appeared to have hit Rojo's hand after coming off his head and was deemed unintentional by the referee. However, critics pointed to the penalty awarded to Iran after VAR consultation when Sardar Azmoun nodded the ball against Cedric Soarez' arm, referring to it as double standards.

Also, Sweden's Marcus Berg appeared to have clearly been fouled by Jerome Boateng of Germany in the box but the referee waved play on without consulting VAR in an eventual 2-1 loss for the Swedes. Swedish outrage would understandably have been more had they not qualified to the second round.

Mitrovic was denied a clear penalty after being hauled down in the box in Serbia's clash with Switzerland. The Swiss would eventually win the game 2-1 and qualify ahead of Serbia and the Eastern Europeans can be forgiven for wondering over the effectiveness of VAR.

Another VAR controversy arose in the match between Brazil and Switzerland as the Samba Boys were irate at what they perceived to be a push on Miranda in the build-up to Switzerland's equalizer, while Kane was told to stand up twice against Tunisia for a similar foul to that which earned Mandzukic a penalty for Croatia against Nigeria.

VAR helped amend a lot of refereeing errors, but as with most other tournaments where it was used before the World Cup, it still has some technical discrepancies particularly in referees' inconsistent decisions for similar offences.