In their Champions League play-off match on Tuesday night, Manchester City seized the lead against Real Madrid after Erling Haaland finally managed to score. A spot in the knockout stages of the renowned event was at stake when the two teams met at the Etihad. Although the visitors were in control early on, Pep Guardiola’s team broke the tie, but they had to wait a long time to celebrate the goal.
Haaland drove into the box following a beautiful play down the left-hand side. Josko Gvardiol chested the ball into his path, and he tucked it in. Following their first celebration of the score, City had to wait anxiously as the officials and VAR determined if the Norwegian was offside.
Manchester City 1 Real Madrid 0. Erling Haaland rounds off an excellent team move to score his first ever goal against Real. Four-minute VAR check before the goal was finally given.👕 pic.twitter.com/a0KORovEDZ
— Ben Jacobs (@JacobsBen) February 11, 2025
Mark Clattenburg was available to join the commentary team and explain why the referees were taking so long to decide whether or not to give the strike after the event took four minutes to check. It was all about the ball.
They Had to Use the Line of the Ball to Determine the Offside
The automated system uses players
To determine the offside, they had to use the ball’s line.
Players are used by the automated system.
The Champions League’s computerised offside system usually uses the bodies of the players to judge if a player was offside. This time, however, they had to use the position of the ball to determine if Haaland was behind it as it was played to him because of the manner of the goal.
When the matter was finally resolved, it was found that the striker was behind the ball, and the goal was upheld. But Alan Shearer, who was commentating the match, didn’t like that the players had to stand around and wait for four minutes while the officials made a judgement.
“It’s unacceptable that players are made to wait for that long,” the former Newcastle United player stated. However, the goal would have made the wait worthwhile for City.
