Chief refereeing officer Howard Webb has outlined why Benjamin \u0160e\u0161ko\u2019s strike in Manchester United\u2019s 3\u20132 win over Liverpool remained valid despite footage that appears to show the ball brushing the striker\u2019s hand.<\/p>\n
Liverpool goalkeeper Freddie Woodman parried a header into \u0160e\u0161ko and the ball appeared to brush the forward\u2019s hand before rolling into the net. VAR carried out a lengthy review but the on-field decision was not overturned for handball.<\/p>\n
Webb said the replay material suggested contact but stressed that VAR must reach a level of certainty to intervene. \u201cThe clip speaks for itself. I think it probably does hit the hand,\u201d Webb told Match Officials Mic\u2019d Up. \u201cBut of course, the VAR need that conclusivity. They need to be absolutely certain that it does.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter what we think, it\u2019s what they think. We do ask them to be sure that something needs acting on. Certainly \u0160e\u0161ko doesn\u2019t deliberately handle this, he doesn\u2019t make himself big. It\u2019s all very natural.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut of course, the laws of the game require any goal that comes off the hand from the player who scores immediately, the goal needs to be disallowed. That means the VAR has no option but to start looking for that.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes it looks like they\u2019re being too forensic and you hear the VAR looking from various angles. They want to get it right, if it does conclusively come off the arm. But they don\u2019t get to that level of certainty.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey probably think it does [hit \u0160e\u0161ko\u2019s hand] as well, but they need to be absolutely categorical to get involved. They couldn\u2019t find it. That\u2019s why the on-field decision stood.\u201d<\/p>\n
Liverpool manager Arne Slot criticised VAR after the game and Webb\u2019s remarks are likely to increase frustration. \u201cIf it was a touch, which I think it is, in a ball sport it has a certain curve and it changes it must be a contact, then we should have a debate if that is enough to disallow a goal,\u201d Slot fumed after the defeat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Webb says VAR could not be certain that Sesko’s goal came off his hand, so the decision stood still.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13780,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,179,969],"tags":[1505,299,317],"class_list":["post-13781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","category-manchester-united","category-premier-league","tag-accountability","tag-arne-slot","tag-benjamin-sesko"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}