Neville: Officials got Haaland winner wrong - Man Utd can expect apology
Gary Neville believes the VAR officials were "wrong" to award Manchester City's winner at Manchester United in their 1-0 victory at Old Trafford.
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Gary Neville believes the VAR officials were "wrong" to award Manchester City's winner at Manchester United in their 1-0 victory at Old Trafford.
And the Sky Sports pundit has predicted English football's officiating body, Pro Ref, will issue an apology for allowing Erling Haaland's goal.
The striker's goal was initially disallowed for offside on the pitch before VAR overturned the decision.
The VAR officials deemed Haaland was played onside by Man Utd defender Patrick Dorgu. However, Man City's Enzo Fernandez was in an offside position as he attempted to play the ball before it reached Haaland.
Despite not touching the ball, Fernandez's movement appeared to impact the defending of Man Utd's Lisandro Martinez before Haaland's back-post finish, which by the laws of the game should have led to the goal remaining disallowed.
In their post on X explaining why the goal was awarded, the Premier League Match Centre wrote:
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'VAR checked the referee's call of no goal for offside - and determined that Haaland was in an onside position and recommended that the goal was awarded. The VAR also deemed that while in an offside position, Fernandez didn't play the ball.'
That stress on Fernandez not playing the ball chimed with replays shown during the VAR review in which the VAR officials apparently sought to detect whether or not the City midfielder played the ball.
However, the offside rule clearly stipulates that a player can be offside despite not playing the ball and can interfere with an opponent by:
"They're the words that I think - emphatically - means we will see an apology from Pro Ref," said Neville.
"There is no doubt that Enzo is attempting to play the ball and putting Lisandro Martinez off
"It's a really strange one. They'll recognise they got that wrong."
Former Man City defender Micah Richards dismissed Match Centre's explanation that the goal was awarded because Fernandez didn't touch the ball as a "nonsense".
Asked whether Fernandez was clearly attempting to play the ball, Richards told Sky Sports: "One hundred per cent he is.
"They got the Phil Foden decision wrong, and they got this decision wrong.
"How you can not say Enzo Fernandez is challenging for the ball - of course he is!
"I've been in that position as a defender where any slight movement can make the difference for going for the ball or not, so of course it affects him.
