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World Cup pundit Souness left shocked by Japan winner

ITV World Cup pundit Graeme Souness was shocked at Japan's winning goal against Spain standing.

The Japanese looked to have taken the lead in the second half, making it 2-1 after having been 1-0 down in the final group stage clash.

However, the VAR had to check if the ball had gone out of play during the build up to the goal.

Eventually, the decision was made that the goal stood, which infuriated Souness, even though the call was made using goal line technology.

"Every television studio, every pundit has an interest in this World Cup will be wanting to see the picture where at the end where this happened," Souness said.

"In real time, as it happened, the ball went out, the pictures we've seen shown the ball went out.

"Why aren't FIFA showing us something which is so controversial that it just cost the Germans dearly. Why are they not showing it to us? This is enormous, 45 minutes later, why aren't they showing it? Clear it up for us, please.

"We were eulogising about Spain, there's a saying in football don't be surprised by the surprising, that is such a turnaround. It's hard to understand, a team so in control to being rattled early on to what we think is a contentious goal and they've lost the game.

“Fair play to Japan but they never give us. They kept rattling into the challenges, started strong, I come back to it, I can't believe FIFA aren't showing us pictures that conclusively show the ball over the line. This is not subjective, this is a black and white situation. Show us the pictures.

"We're getting close to an hour since the incident. The longer they don't come up with a picture, that last bit would show me that ball is out of play. The longer they don't produce that picture which shows conclusively that its not gone out of play, you'd think there's something untoward going on. It has to be.

"There's 80 million Germans, right now, going mad that shows that ball didn't go out of play. I think every TV studio, pundit, people doing your [ITV host Mark Pougatch] job [presenting] is waiting, why, nearly an hour later are they not showing it?

"Why would you, if you're FIFA, knowing Germany - it's not a small footballing nation, create confusion about something on that shouldn't be going on… I'm going to have to tread careful. Why would you not want to clear it up immediately?"

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Ansser Sadiq

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