VIDEO: Fans convinced Man Utd’s first goal vs Aston Villa shouldn’t have been allowed as ‘unseen’ moment emerges.
There has been debate among supporters on whether or not Manchester United’s first goal against Aston Villa should have been permitted.
Early in the first half, Rasmus Hojlund gave Erik ten Hag’s team the lead by scoring from close range after Harry Maguire’s header.
At Villa Park, Douglas Luiz had tied the score for the hosts before Scott McTominay struck late to secure United’s triumph.
However, there was some disagreement about United’s opening goal.
When the ball was played in from the free kick that came before the corner, Casemiro was offside.
The ball then sailed over the head of the Brazilian midfielder before Raphael Varane won it. Varane’s header took a deflection off Clement Lenglet, a Villa defender, and went out for a corner, from which United scored.
The incident is shown below.
Since the corner is regarded as a separate phase of play, VAR was unable to intervene, and Casemiro was not called offside in the game. Additionally, United failed to score from the free kick.
The assistant referee’s failure to flag Casemiro offside, which would have awarded the home team a free kick and stopped the goalscoring corner from being taken, was the main source of annoyance for the Villa supporters.
According to the Ifab rules of the game, a player is offside if they are “making an obvious action which clearly impacts on the ability of an opponent to play the ball” or “clearly attempting to play a ball which is close when this action impacts on an opponent.”
United supporters argue that Casemiro did not clearly attempt to play the ball since the ball was not near enough to his head.
While this was going on, Villa supporters think that Casemiro’s leap interfered with Lenglet and Diego Carlos’ ability to see the ball as they both attempted to challenge for it.
However, both opinions are subjective, and it is not clear from the camera angle whether the Brazilian midfielder’s returns to play had an effect on either player.
Was Casemiro right to be called offside, or was the on-field ruling accurate? Tell us in the comments below.
