liverpool and Wanderers of Wolverhampton drew 2-2 in the third round of FA Cup at Anfield, but there were two controversial offside decisions. That’s what happened.
Goal disallowed: Nunes offside on Toti’s goal
What happened: At the 81st minute, Toti thought he had scored the winning goal for Wolves but the assistant raised his offside flag.
VAR Decision: Offside stands.
0:58
Hwang Hee-Chan scores, but the goal is disallowed by VAR.
VAR review: It was a decision that confused most fans as there was no offside just before Toti scored. So why was the flag raised?
The movement started with a corner taken by Matheus Nunes. After the delivery in the area, the last offensive touch was to Hwang Hee Chan — this defines the offside phase. Nunes was the next player to receive the ball. The assistant delayed his flag and raised it after the goal was scored as he deemed Nunes to be in an offside position to receive the ball from the corner.
Whether the ball was headed backwards by Hwang is irrelevant for an offside decision. ThiagoAttempting to erase does not reset the phase either.
But there were no offside-calibrated cameras that showed the position of Nunes and the last defender when Hwang headed the ball. The only camera that showed both players was a tall tactical camera that is not calibrated, and there was no definitive evidence to overturn the decision on the pitch.
With semi-automated offside technology, where every player is tracked, that wouldn’t happen.
It’s incredibly unfortunate for Wolves, but even the footage shared on social media shows no evidence that Nunes was on the sidelines – not that VAR would have had access to it anyway.
The lack of clarity for anyone watching, however, further underscores the communication and VAR issues.
We saw a similar incident earlier this season when Gabriel Martinellithe goal for arsenal against liverpool had to stand like VAR could not use a calibrated camera to make a decision on an offside position to Bukayo Saka.
The worst example came in Serie A in September, when Juventus had an added time winner disallowed by VAR for an offside on a corner routine – but there was a Salerno Defender playing everyone to the side by the corner flag which VAR couldn’t see on available replays. In this case, VAR wrongly got involved in the game to change a correct decision which cost Juve two points.
Possible offside: Salah scoring
What happened: liverpool took the lead in the 52nd minute when Cody Gakpo tried to find Mohammad Salah with a ball on top. Toti made a failed clearing attempt with a header and Salah recovered the loose ball to score. But should there have been an offside?
VAR Decision: The objective stands.
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Mohamed Salah settles the ball and passes it past the keeper to give Liverpool a 2-1 lead.
VAR review: It’s a controversial move and goes straight to the heart of what ‘deliberate play’ is by a defender. There is no doubt that Salah is in an offside position, but if the officials judge Toti’s actions as ‘deliberate play’, Salah cannot be penalized or offside.
In short, “deliberate play” only applies when a defender is in control of where the ball is going. Many factors are considered and a header attempt is deemed more in favor of the defender than a kick. This is because there is generally less control in the head of a ball.
If a defender has to stretch or jump to direct the ball, that’s an extra layer to determine that it’s not “deliberate play”.
Dean decided not to interfere with the on-field decision to allow the goal. However. we are likely to see similar cases where an objective is denied.
This is an extremely subjective offside zone, and Wolves can consider themselves very unfortunate to have conceded this goal as well.
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