The temperature around Manchester's clash with Real was extremely hot before the meeting. The poor attitude of the Pep Guardiola team in the league phase (they were close to the complete fall off the games) meant that they took only 22nd place in the table and in the play-off for promotion to the 1/8 finals they drew Real Madrid. For “royal” the lack of direct promotion was also a considerable disappointment.
City fans “set fire to” before the match and VAR in the process
Just before the match, the fans at Etihad Stadium decided to additionally stick the pin in Real Madrid. They prepared a setting with the image of Rodri kissing the golden ball trophy with an appeal, so that the Madrid people would finally stop crying because of it. This, of course, will blame Real's behavior, which boycotted the Golden Ball Gala when it turned out that the award would go to the Spaniard, and not to Vinicius Junior. However, after the first half as much, and maybe even more, there was talk of something completely different.
They waited, waited, waited and … waited
It's about VAR verification at 1: 0 goal for Manchester City. He shot him in the 19th minute Erling Haaland. Judges on VAR have doubts whether at the time of serving from Josko Gvardiola Norwegian was before or behind the ball. If before – the goal is correct, if it is burned, the goal is not recognized. The verification lasted terribly long. There is a system of automatic burned detection in the Champions League, but here the specificity of the suture required “human” analysis. It was only after more than four minutes that the judges came to the conclusion that only Haaland's hand was behind the ball, and according to the current regulations, the hand does not count, because it cannot be scored. The goal was recognized.
The English legend thunders. “Unacceptable”
The whole situation caused indignation in the media. It was not about the very question of whether it was burned or not, but about the length of the entire process. A wave of criticism spilled on the judges. The legendary English striker Alan Shearer, commenting on the field events for Amazon Prime, had no mercy. “The fact that fans and players must wait so much, it is totally unacceptable,” said the Englishman, quoted by the Daily Star Sport.
The GivemeSport portal explains why the judges had to analyze the whole situation at all. – Normally, in the Champions League, burned is settled by an automatic system, which takes the bodies of players as a reference point. However, in this situation the burned line was marked by the ball, so it was the judges who had to assess whether Haaland burned the action or not – we read.
In turn, explaining why the Norwegian, however, avoided a burnt, although at first glance it looked different, posted the Spanish daily “March”. – Here is the exact picture of the action that gave City a goal. Only Haaland's hand is on the offside, which cannot be fired. Therefore, in the light of the regulations, the goal was recognized – write the Spaniards.
Haaland's goals did not save City
It was not the only goal of Haaland in this match, because in the second half he got from the penalty kick. Before him there was a longer break, but it was just caused by the “collecting” of the fouled Phil Foden from the turf. When the Englishman rose, everything went smoothly. Ultimately, however, Norwegian hits did nothing, because Real at the very end reversed the result from 1: 2 to 3: 2 due to the goals of Brahima Diaz and Jude Bellingham.