Copenhagen 0-0 Manchester City (Mahrez missed pen 25′, Gomez red card 30′)
Manchester City’s 0-0 with FC Copenhagen was a game that showcased the very best and worst of VAR.
In the space of 19 first-half minutes, referee Artur Dias made controversial calls on handball, a penalty and a red card, all with the aid of video technology.
It could be argued that only one of them, the sending off of City defender Sergio Gomez, was the correct one – and even that came after a painstaking delay of several minutes.
It led a despondent Steve McManaman to declare on BT Sport that “the world’s gone mad!” – not once but twice – and it was hard to disagree with him.
Incident 1
The first incident caught almost everyone by surprise. City appeared to take the lead as Rodri’s spectacular 25-yard strike fizzed through the outstretched palm of Copenhagen keeper Kamil Grabara and into the top corner for what would have been his first Champions League goal.
After City’s celebrations died down and the players walked back for kick-off, Dias was called over to the video replay screen to assess an apparent handball.
Rodri finds the back of the net for Man City but the goal is ruled out by VAR following a Mahrez handball
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) October 11, 2022#UCL pic.twitter.com/Lcp89O0P4i
Replays showed the ball had glanced Riyad Mahrez’s hand in the build up before Julian Alvarez teed up Rodri.
“The world’s gone mad! Surely not,” McManaman said on BT Sport commentary. “The world’s gone mad. Of course it hits his hand but it’s ridiculous to disallow a goal for it. Come on!
“He’s literally turning his body. Stamenic is going for it so you can’t blame Mahrez for it brushing his hand. Surely not.”
Ifab’s laws of the game
Handling the ball
For the purposes of determining handball offences, the upper boundary of
the arm is in line with the bottom of the armpit. Not every touch of a
player’s hand/arm with the ball is an offence.It is an offence if a player:
- deliberately touches the ball with their hand/arm, for example moving the
hand/arm towards the ball- touches the ball with their hand/arm when it has made their body
unnaturally bigger. A player is considered to have made their body
unnaturally bigger when the position of their hand/arm is not a consequence
of, or justifiable by, the player’s body movement for that specific situation. By
having their hand/arm in such a position, the player takes a risk of their
hand/arm being hit by the ball and being penalised- scores in the opponents’ goal: directly from their hand/arm, even if accidental, including by the goalkeeper OR immediately after the ball has touched their hand/arm, even if accidental
Peter Crouch: “You can see by the players’ reactions – nobody is appealing for it at all. It’s totally accidental.”
Owen Hargreaves: “That is one of the best strikes I’ve seen all season, deserved a goal. Dreadful decision from the referees.”
Incident 2
City were awarded a penalty in the second controversial incident, when Copenhagen defender Nicolai Boilesen was deemed to have handled the ball when trying to mark Manuel Akanji at a corner.
“All I would say is it’s less ridiculous than the Mahrez one,” noted Crouch in the BT Sport studio.
Mahrez failed to get revenge from the spot, however, seeing his poor penalty saved at a comfortable height by former Liverpool goalkeeper Grabara.
Incident 3
The third controversial came when Sergio Gomez was sent off for a clear foul on Copenhagen forward Viktor Claesson that was somehow missed by the referee and only corrected by VAR after a long delay.
“This one was spot on,” Crouch said. “What I don’t understand was how he didn’t give it in real time. He was in on goal. Gomez just got on the wrong side, panics and pulls him down. It was the right decision, I just don’t understand why it had to go to VAR.
Hargreaves: “The referees have had a bit of a nightmare.”
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