As much as Manchester City were the better side over 90 minutes against Liverpool on Sunday afternoon in an eventual 3-0 victory, it’s easy to imagine a scenario where Virgil van Dijk’s headed goal in the first half could well have changed things given the Reds were down just a goal at the time and that would have levelled things.
Instead, City seized the advantage, handing the visitors a double blow and following up that ruled-out goal by scoring their second. As the league’s officiating body, the Professional
Game Match Officials Limited, outlined, by standing in an offside position Liverpool’s Andy Robertson had impacted goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma’s ability to make the stop.
For many watching, though, the City stopper had a clear line of site with Robertson not in line with where the ball was coming from and also not impeded in his efforts to dive and make the save, with Donnarumma moving early and reaching full stretch in an effort to do so. And that includes former PGMOL general manager Keith Hackett.
“We saw Liverpool have a perfectly good goal ruled out,” Hackett told Football Insider. “We know there is a degree of subjectivity in this specific law, but a player in an offside position at the moment the ball is played or touched by a team mate is only penalised on becoming involved in active play by interfering with play.
“He’s in an offside position, but that in itself not an offence. Did he really interfere with the goalkeeper? I think the goalkeeper had a clear line of sight, he could’ve saved it, he didn’t. The ball went in and the officials took the decision to give offside and rule out the goal. Yes [there is] subjectivity around this law, but my opinion is I don’t like good goals being ruled out.”
It can feel churlish to complain at seeing key calls such as the one on Sunday controversially go against a side when their opponent was clearly better on the day, yet given the timing and game state—and a goal that would have seen the Reds level at 1-1 and celebrating rather than soon down 2-0—it can’t be ignored completely.
For Liverpool, though, it’s now in the past. And the reality of both the match on balance and their current standing in the table, in the thick of the chasing pack more concerned with the top four race than the title, seems a fair reflection of their overall play in a season that so far hasn’t quite gone to plan or lived up to expectation.
