Leicester City manager Ruud van Nistelrooy expressed his anger after Manchester United progressed to the FA Cup fifth round with a controversial late winner.
Harry Maguire headed in Bruno Fernandes’ free-kick in the 93rd minute, but replays clearly showed the defender was offside by a significant margin. Softfootball reports that the lack of VAR in this round led to a costly human error.
Van Nistelrooy felt his team was denied the chance to compete in extra time due to a clear officiating mistake.
He argued that the decision was not a marginal call but an obvious error that should have been spotted by the linesman, leaving his players and staff frustrated by the abrupt end to their cup campaign.
He explained his frustration by stating:
We are not defeated in Fergie time, we are defeated in offside time. The game was decided on a mistake, it’s clear. This wasn’t necessary. VAR you have when it’s a couple centimetres, a couple of inches, this was half a metre, clear in line.
Former United captain Roy Keane also criticized the officials, agreeing that the linesman should have seen the offside. The incident highlights the ongoing debate about technology in early FA Cup rounds and the impact of such decisions on competitive integrity.
