Howard Webb: It was ‘understandable’ that Liverpool’s goal against Manchester City was disallowed
The key question in that situation was whether the player’s actions interfered with Donnarumma, the goalkeeper, and affected his ability to make the save — and that’s where the subjective element lies.
“The officials ultimately concluded that it did. They assessed the player’s position and movement, noted how close he was to the goalkeeper, and decided that it had an influence.
“Not everyone will agree with that judgment, but it’s understandable how they reached it. The player was positioned very close to Donnarumma, the ball came directly toward him, and he had to duck out of the way — which, in their view, affected the goalkeeper’s ability to react and make the save.
“Once that on-field decision was made, the VAR’s role was to check whether the offside ruling was a clear and obvious error.
“Only Donnarumma himself can truly say if he was impacted, but based on the available evidence — showing the player ducking under the ball right in front of him — the VAR concluded that the offside decision wasn’t clearly wrong, so they didn’t intervene.”
Earlier this week, Liverpool reached out to PGMOL to express their frustration over the disallowed Virgil van Dijk goal against Manchester City on Sunday.
