Ruud van Nisterlooy said his Leicester City side were defeated in “offside time” after being knocked out of the FA Cup by Manchester United due to an official failing to spot an offside.
Harry Maguire headed in a Bruno Fernandes free kick in the 93rd minute, but the assistant referee failed to spot the England defender was offside in the build-up to the goal.
Leicester boss Van Nistelrooy criticised the mistake from the official, telling ITV Sport after the game: “We were not defeated in Fergie time. We were defeated in ‘offside time’. This wasn’t necessary.
“VAR you have for (an offside that is) a couple of centimetres, inches. This was half a metre, clear and in line. It’s a hard one to take because the team deserved the draw.
“With extra time, if you stay in the game, you never know what happens. It was a really good team performance. We started really well, pressing United, on the ball very stable. We deserved to go 1-0 up at half-time.
“Of course, we knew that there would be some pressure on us in the second half and some chances, but not even that much. So we deserved to go into extra time and go into the battle for extra time and maybe penalties. So decisions like this, at our level, are hard to swallow.”
Leicester entered half-time 1-0 up thanks to a goal from Bobby De Cordova-Reid in the 42nd minute.
However, substitute Joshua Zirkzee equalised in the 68th minute before Maguire’s late winner ensured that United would be in the hat for the fifth round.
Had the goal been correctly disallowed, the game was on course to enter extra-time and a potential penalty shootout.
Van Nisterlooy said in his post-match press conference: “It’s a hard one to take because the game was decided on a mistake. It was clear. It’s not a matter of VAR where you have to look millimeters, it was half a meter, it was clear.
“The team didn’t deserve to lose the game in this way because they fought and they played well. It’s one, you can’t turn it back so we have to live with it. We’re all humans and make mistakes but at this level that’s not good enough. That’s it and for me. There’s enough to be said about it.”
The Football Association decided that the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) would only be introduced from the fifth round of the FA Cup onwards, meaning it was not in operation to correct the linesman’s mistake at Old Trafford on Friday.
The draw for the FA Cup fifth round proper will be made on February 10.
GO DEEPER
The Briefing: Man United 2 Leicester 1 – The Garnacho effect, that first-half dirge, Dorgu on the right?
(Richard Sellers/Sportsphoto/Allstar via Getty Images)
