One of the questions which many supporters have asked is how the VAR team could possibly reach the conclusion that Fernandez did not commit an offside offence.
Manchester United defender Lisandro Martinez initially appeared to be marking Haaland, but then moved over to try and intercept the ball from Fernandez. This left Haaland free at the back post to finish.
Former England striker and BBC Sport pundit Wayne Rooney said on Match of the Day that “to not see that and recognise that Enzo Fernandez was in an offside position…anyone who has played the game at any level understands that and to get it so wrong is baffling.”
The Mic’d Up audio revealed that at no stage did Donohue or Antrobus consider whether Fernandez was offside because, as Webb describes, they got “tunnel vision” over Haaland.
The semi-automated offside technology told the VAR that Haaland was three centimetres onside from Josko Gvardiol’s cross.
But the video officials then only checked for a touch by Fernandez which would have created a new offside phase against the Norway international.
“The VAR gets super-focused on Haaland,” said Webb, who had already been in contact with Manchester United to share the VAR audio and video.
“He establishes he’s onside, he thinks that’s a good goal.
“He doesn’t truly evaluate the full impact of Fernandez’s position. He has a look to see if he touches the ball, because then that relates to potentially knocking it to Haaland, who goes on to score.
“In that moment, he gets tunnel vision. It’s down to the rest of his team to pull him out of that tunnel, and unfortunately, that didn’t happen on this occasion.
“What looks like a really clear subjective offside, because Fernandez doesn’t touch the ball but still clearly impacts [the play but] doesn’t get identified, and it’s really disappointing.
“This goal should’ve been disallowed. And highly unfortunately, it wasn’t, and we’ll review it, reflect upon it, and try to take the learning forward to prevent this unusual type of error from happening again.”
