Enzo Maresca has dismissed the backlash around Manchester City\u2019s disputed derby winner, arguing that the reaction has taken attention away from his side\u2019s display. The City manager said it was \u201cquite poor\u201d that the performance was being overlooked, while also pointing to a similar call that went against City in a 2023 derby.<\/p>\n
The incident centred on Fern\u00e1ndez, who went up to challenge for the ball and missed it, leaving Haaland onside from the original cross. The debate came down to the Argentine\u2019s position in front of goal, with his movement affecting the reactions of others around him.<\/p>\n
On Match Officials Mic\u2019d Up, referee chief Howards Webb admitted the VAR focus narrowed too heavily on Haaland. \u201cThe VAR gets super focused on Haaland,\u201d Webb said. \u201cHe establishes he\u2019s onside, he thinks that\u2019s a good goal. He doesn\u2019t truly evaluate the full impact of Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s position.\u201d<\/p>\n
City had already spent much of the match playing with 10 men after Phil Foden was sent off in the first half for tangling with Bruno Fernandes. That context, Maresca argued, mattered just as much as the disputed goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cTalking about one episode or one moment after that game when we played for 70-75 minutes with 10 players, I think it’s quite poor,\u201d Maresca said on Wednesday, his first press conference since the officials publicly acknowledged the error on Sunday.<\/p>\n
He also made clear that he believed the team\u2019s display deserved recognition. \u201cI think the performance was unbelievable, and I\u2019m pleased with the performance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maresca did not deny City benefited from a mistake, but framed it as part of the game rather than a special case.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is knowledge that there was a mistake and that\u2019s all. Sometimes it goes for you, sometimes against you. It\u2019s football,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
To underline his argument, the new City boss referred back to January 2023, when United won a derby 2-1 after coming from behind. Bruno Fernandes scored the equaliser after an offside Marcus Rashford chased the ball without touching it, then left it for his teammate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Maresca defended City\u2019s derby win, said the reaction was \u201cquite poor,\u201d and cited a similar call in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19535,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[238,179,2024],"tags":[1836,180],"class_list":["post-19536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-city","category-manchester-united","category-refereeing","tag-2026-27-premier-league","tag-player-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19536","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=19536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}