Erling Haaland\u2019s second-half strike settled Sunday\u2019s derby at Old Trafford, but the goal came with immediate argument. Manchester United defender Lisandro Mart\u00ednez reacted angrily to what he called an \u201cinjustice\u201d after a finish that first looked as if it might be ruled out for offside.<\/p>\n
Manchester City had already relied on the post and a series of sharp saves from Gianluigi Donnarumma to stay level before the decisive moment arrived. On the hour, Haaland was found at the back post and converted City\u2019s only shot on target in the second half. The flag went up at first, and the effort was initially disallowed, only for a long VAR check to reverse the decision and confirm the goal.<\/p>\n
The key detail was Jo\u0161ko Gvardiol\u2019s cross from the edge of the box. Broadcast images suggested Haaland had gone beyond the line, but VAR concluded otherwise. Patrick Dorgu had stretched to block Gvardiol\u2019s delivery and, in doing so, slightly deflected the ball toward Haaland, keeping the City forward marginally onside.<\/p>\n
That alone did not end the debate. Attention then turned to Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez, who was in an offside position as he attempted to attack the cross ahead of Mart\u00ednez. He did not touch the ball, and the Premier League Match Centre later said he was not interfering with play.<\/p>\n
Its explanation was clear: \u201cVAR checked the referee\u2019s call of no goal for offside\u2014and determined that Haaland was in an onside position and recommended that the goal was awarded. The VAR also deemed that while in an offside position, Fern\u00e1ndez didn\u2019t play the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mart\u00ednez was unconvinced and questioned both the law and its application. \u201cI think [Fern\u00e1ndez] was offside,\u201d Mart\u00ednez bluntly explained to Sky Sports postmatch. \u201cWhat I can\u2019t understand is the rules. He was there! I went to him because he was in front of me. That\u2019s why Haaland was free at the back.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to be calm but it is so hard. Every season the officials come to our club and spend an hour explaining the rules and they look so confident with that. Then after, five or six people [officials] doing this kind of mistake in the Premier League is unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Haaland scored the derby winner after a VAR review ruled him onside and Fern\u00e1ndez uninvolved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19394,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[238,179],"tags":[1836,59],"class_list":["post-19395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-city","category-manchester-united","tag-2026-27-premier-league","tag-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19395","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=19395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}