Man City vs Fulham: Manchester City won their fourth straight win in their few opening Premier League matches. The PFA Award winner and the UEFA Player of the Year winner Erling Haaland scored his first hat-trick of this season in the game. However, it was Nathan Ake’s goal that was the talk of the game. Manuel Akanji who was clearly trying to get involved in the game was standing at an absolutely offside position. VAR decided to award Man City the goal and even Haaland said that Fulham were wronged.
Last season’s top scorer, this season’s PFA Award winner, and the UEFA Player of the Year winner Erling Haaland scored a hattrick. It was his 7th hattrick with Manchester City and this season’s first. However, even this achievement was overshadowed due to a blunder by the VAR. The goal came after Manuel Akanji tried to get involved in the game at an offside position. After the match, Haaland said, “I think it was offside, I feel bad for them [Fulham], I would be so angry if I were them.”
The Man City vs Fulham match was tied 1-1 at the time of the incident. Nathan Ake scored the goal at the 5th additional minute of the first half. Manuel Akanji was standing at a very clear offside position in the opposition goalkeeper’s line. Michael Oliver, the match referee consulted with his assistant and said the Akanji didn’t try to gain advantage of the situation. However, even though Akanji raised a leg and feinted to get the ball. This influenced Fulham goalkeeper Bernd Leno.
However, the VAR’s decision declared the goal to stand. Before the second half started, the goal was shown on the giant screens at the stadium where the offside was quite clear. This led to the players beseeching the referee for a look. However, without the VAR’s permission, he didn’t have the right to do so and the match restart was also delayed. After the match, Fulham’s coach said, “For the linesman, it can be difficult. Is he in an offside position, can he see or not?”
He added, “But for the VAR it’s impossible not to disallow that goal. It’s clear he [Akanji] is in the line of the ball. He pulled away from the line of the ball in the direction of the goal and influenced completely the goalkeeper and the goalkeeper’s reaction. Its’ a clear offside and this is what will concern anyone in football. How that goal was allowed by the VAR? The more times you see that moments, you have to be more sure it is disallowed.”
Talking about the half time replay of the goal on the screen, the coach said, “The players saw it [on the big screen], the City players saw it as well, everyone that was on the pitch had the same opinion. But the referee didn’t say anything because I haven’t spoken with him.”
Fulham performed well in the first half. However, the decision and Man City’s lead seemed to affect them. The coach said, “I tried at half time to tell the players not to lose focus on things we cannot control but of course it made a huge impact. Even all the explanations that we had didn’t make sense at all.”
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