Dermot Gallagher explains why VAR was unable to intervene in Man City vs Leeds United controversy
Leeds United suffered defeat away to Man City on Saturday, with one goal that caused a lot of controversy.
Man City secured a 3-2 victory against Leeds, despite the Whites having drawn the game level after going 2-0 down early doors.
Both Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Lukas Nmecha were on the scoresheet for Leeds, with Phil Foden scoring twice at the Etihad.
However, it was also Foden who was involved in a controversial incident in the first half, and Dermot Gallagher has since explained why the decision was made.
Josko Gvardiol’s goal should never have happened
Leeds went 1-0 down within a minute at the Etihad, with Josko Gvardiol doubling City’s advantage in the 25th minute.
Lucas Perri was at fault after missing the ball when attempting to punch the corner clear, with the Croatia defender prodding the ball into an empty net as a result.
However, the corner arrived from a Foden shot that was saved by Perri, with the Englishman clearly in an offside position when the ball was played back to him.
The flag stayed down, and the corner was awarded, with VAR helpless to reverse the decision given the fact that it was a different passage of play.
Via Sky Sports, Gallagher said: “When the corner is taken by Foden, the assistant is forced to move to go level with the last defender. Foden is on his right-hand side, so he doesn’t see him.
“Gvardiol heads the ball first time back to Foden, who is in an offside position. He takes the ball in, strikes it. Wins a corner.
“VAR couldn’t get involved because it wasn’t a goal. They can only deal with the situations with the protocol.”
Daniel Farke was also livid about a separate incident vs Man City
The Foden offside cost Leeds a goal, in the end, and while the other incident didn’t, it still angered Daniel Farke.
Gianluigi Donnarumma went down with an injury, allowing the City players to regroup and go over to the touchline for tactical instructions.
Only the Italian wasn’t actually injured, much to the annoyance of Farke, who said: “If we don’t educate our players in football, what to do in terms of fair play, sportsmanship, if you just try to bend the rules to your advantage and you can do a fake injury in order to do an additional team talk.
“It is nothing I personally like, but if it is within the rules, I can’t complain about it.”
However, once again, Gallagher believes that the officials had no options in this case.
“Referee is hamstrung,” he said. “You’re not a physio, you’re not a doctor. There is nothing a ref can do.”
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