Nathan Ake’s goal against Fulham should’ve been disallowed and VAR made ‘error’, says Howard Webb
PGMOL chief Howard Webb admits Nathan Ake’s goal during Manchester City’s win over Fulham shouldn’t have been awarded.
City handed the Cottagers a 5-1 thrashing on Saturday, however, a key moment in the match saw the champions go 2-1 up in stoppage time at the end of the first half.
Ake’s header controversially put City 2-1 up at the Etihad Stadiumsky sports
Manuel Akanji is clearly offside when the header is made but VAR decided on the day he wasn’t in Fulham goalkeeper Bernd Leno’s eyelinesky sports
It came in controversial circumstances as Ake’s header bounced past Fulham Bernd Leno, with the ball passing City teammate Manuel Akanji before going into the net.
Akanji was stood in an offside position when Ake made the header and was also stood in the eyeline of Leno as the ball made its way into the net.
However, referee Michael Oliver and VAR Tony Harrington decided that Akanji had not interfered with play.
Fulham boss Marco Silva was fuming with the decision and Webb suggested the Portuguese had every right to be.
Webb said on the Match Officials: Mic’d Up show on Sky Sports: “From the outset, I want to say this should have been disallowed.
“These are not always easy to call because you are trying to get two pieces of information together. Is the player in an offside position? Which official is in a good position to see, and what consequence was there of the player being in that position and how it impacts the opponents?
“It certainly appears that Akanji has an impact on Bernd Leno, the goalkeeper seems to hesitate. The officials on the field gave the goal, they did not see the obvious action that impacted Leno’s ability to play the ball.
Silva was apoplectic at the officials after the goal was awardedGetty
Webb admits the Fulham boss has a caseSky Sports
“They did not feel it was clearly impactful on Leno’s ability to play the ball but when you see it, you can see that hesitation by the goalkeeper who was waiting to see whether the ball made contact with Akanji, which would have deflected the ball.
“Unfortunately it was not identified on the day and the learning from this will be shared from all of our group because we are looking to do better each and every week – and this was an error.”