Rasmus Hojlund thought he had grabbed his first goal for Manchester United on the brink of half-time during the 3-1 defeat against Brighton at Old Trafford – but the goal for the Dane was ruled out.
After Brighton had struck with 20 minutes played through a brilliant finish by Danny Welbeck, United seemed to have found the equaliser through the Dane as half-time approached.
His right-footed finish caused jubilation amongst the home fans but after a long and drawn-out VAR check, the goal was ruled out.
The replay had shown that Marcus Rashford had possibly just taken the ball out of play and the cameras confirmed it, although the angle of the VAR wasn’t exactly the best, it was not a top-down view.
Former Premier League referee Mike Dean has given his view on the incident.
Dean’s view
The former Premier League referee, who has now become part of Sky’s team gave his verdict on the controversial decision.
“Yeah it is (the correct decision), but it is very tight,” Dean said. “I can understand why the assistant hasn’t seen it and it took a lot of frames to decide this, but VAR got it right.”
United were frustrated with the decision, as was Hojlund who looked lively but struggled to create any chances of real note as he was seemingly suffocated by the organised Brighton defence.
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Pundit’s view
Speaking on Gillette Soccer Saturday, Michael Dawson, former Tottenham defender, gave his views on whether the ball had gone out of play.
“It does look like it goes out if my eyes are correct,” Dawson said on Sky. “It looks like the ball has just gone over the line and it looked like the correct decision.”
United were frustrated throughout and their poor defence has once again come back to bite them.
United take on Bayern Munich on Wednesday night as the pressure builds on the Red Devils and Erik ten Hag.