PGMOL has finally released the VAR audio for Manchester City contentious goal against Totheham [video] – Reasons for the goal despite Benrado offside and all three points awarded to City
Dermot Gallagher, a former official in the Premier League, said that the fact that Bernardo Silva was involved before John Stones’ header against Wolverhampton Wanderers does not change the fact that the goal should have held.
At the end of the game, a lot of Wolves fans were upset because Bernardo was accused of getting in the way of play while he was offside, and Stones scored the winning goal for City. Initially, the assistant referee raised the flag for offside, but VAR looked at the play and decided that the Portuguese player was not in the way of Jose Sa’s view.
The hosts said that even though Bernardo might not have been in the way of Sa’s view, he had caused enough trouble for the goalie before the goal was scored that it should have been taken away. But Gallagher said on Ref Watch that this was a “red herring.”
“If you look, Silva is offside, but he can not be offside from a corner, so that is not the real problem,” he said. When Stones touches the ball, he is already moving away, so he is not in the goalkeeper’s line of sight and does not block his view. Also, the graphic you showed me earlier shows that he does not affect the goalkeeper’s ability to play the ball because he moves away from him.
One important thing that was missed is that when Sa and Bernardo are pushing each other, he is not offside because it is a corner, so he can not be given offside. As long as Stones touches the ball first, he is not in an offside situation. Once Stones touches the ball, he is already offside.
The late win could be very important at the end of the season, since Arsenal lost this past weekend and Liverpool played very well to beat Chelsea 2-1. City is one point behind Liverpool in the table going into their game against Southampton next weekend.
