Sky replayed the full period of play until the goal but there was no specific replay of the penalty shout.
VAR and Refereeing 2025/26 | General Discussion
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They didn’t show the push in seskos back before the goal or whatever happened to Bruno near the end. Made sure to show lots of quadruple zoomed slow motions of sesko a goal though
I may be wrong but looks like he got a shove from whomever was chasing him back, meaning he scuffed the chance.
Didnt matter in the end but I would have thought that “challenge” should be the first port of call for a var check
If that Sesko "handball" goal happened for any other team, it would have had 1 reply and then forgotten about, but because it's United Sky have to get out the 10x zoom footage out to try and prove it brushed a fingernail. Piss take.
Sesko called for it and it did look like something prevented him from the strike. Either way would like to see it back
These brazen fecking cnuts. They wait a month to ban Maguire, looking to feck us over for the Chelsea match but within two hours the Liverpool Defence Forces have mobilised.
Edit: Apparently fake, my bad.
Edit: Apparently fake, my bad.
They were crap today. Nothing of note happened which helped because they got 90% of the small decisions wrong. Still a fecking terrible performance.
According to the stupid laws of the game it’s a handball and it should have been disallowed, I think we’d have been pissed off had it been given against us, but they got battered on the counter in the first half and can have no complaints. Also it might have been a penalty on Sesko before that.
Yes under the current laws it should have been disallowed due to the brush of the fingertips, however the onfield call stands without conclusive proof to the contrary.
You see it in NFL all the time where if you really scrutinised the tape its probably wrong but its affirmed because not obviously conclusive.
Once again the officials applied rules differently for the two teams. Darren England was an absolute disgrace, as was the linesman with the orange flag, in front of the Sir Bobby Charlton Stand. It beggars belief how refereeing in the Premier League can be so corrupt.
Its 2 stupid laws piled on top of each other.
It'd never be a handball anywhere else on the pitch, in any other situation. It might have brushed his finger but it had no impact on the ball and the referee (or anyone else) would never see it in real time. A goal being scored shouldn't change the handball rule. Its just dumb and overcomplicates matters.
Then there's clear and obvious error - you dont have conclusive, incontrovertible evidence that it was wrong. So it cant be overruled despite looking by all probabilities to have touched his fingers.
Him pulling his hand away is the prime reason it looks like a handball to me. But he could have just noticed the ball was really close to his hand and pulled it away too.
So they got it right technically. Despite it clearly being wrong. Cant really blame the ref because you cant see it in real time. VAR cant overrule. Everyone looks a bit stupid.
It'd never be a handball anywhere else on the pitch, in any other situation. It might have brushed his finger but it had no impact on the ball and the referee (or anyone else) would never see it in real time. A goal being scored shouldn't change the handball rule. Its just dumb and overcomplicates matters.
Then there's clear and obvious error - you dont have conclusive, incontrovertible evidence that it was wrong. So it cant be overruled despite looking by all probabilities to have touched his fingers.
Him pulling his hand away is the prime reason it looks like a handball to me. But he could have just noticed the ball was really close to his hand and pulled it away too.
So they got it right technically. Despite it clearly being wrong. Cant really blame the ref because you cant see it in real time. VAR cant overrule. Everyone looks a bit stupid.
I think one way to look at these incidents is to ask the question "In the pre-VAR era, would there be a lot of controversy about the referee's call here?"
To my mind, the answer in the case of the second goal is a very obvious no. I think it does probably brush his fingers so perhaps you could say that, according to the letter of the law, it should be disallowed and Liverpool are hard done by. But again, in my eyes this is not a decision that would be given a second thought in the pre-VAR era, and in my admittedly somewhat biased opinion here I would quite like to see this level of common sense applied more often by referees in favour of these ridiculous slow motion, zoomed in clips being used to rule our goals or given penalties/red cards.
To my mind, the answer in the case of the second goal is a very obvious no. I think it does probably brush his fingers so perhaps you could say that, according to the letter of the law, it should be disallowed and Liverpool are hard done by. But again, in my eyes this is not a decision that would be given a second thought in the pre-VAR era, and in my admittedly somewhat biased opinion here I would quite like to see this level of common sense applied more often by referees in favour of these ridiculous slow motion, zoomed in clips being used to rule our goals or given penalties/red cards.
We were hard done by. How did they ever come to a conclusion that it might have touched his hand, other than to try to find a reason to disallow? No way if that goes against us you ever even know it ‘might’ have touched a hand.
MOTD trying to pretend the Sesko goal was fairly clear handball, and showing Slot getting all worked up about it, and VAR being against them all season.
I saw the Celtic game before, and that clearly came off the guys arm, yet it wasn't deemed clear enough to rule out. But even slowed down and super zoomed in you can't be 100 % sure it grazes Sesko's fingernails, yet they want to paint the narrative that we were lucky there.
Also I didn't see one replay of the challenge on Sesko just before.
I saw the Celtic game before, and that clearly came off the guys arm, yet it wasn't deemed clear enough to rule out. But even slowed down and super zoomed in you can't be 100 % sure it grazes Sesko's fingernails, yet they want to paint the narrative that we were lucky there.
Also I didn't see one replay of the challenge on Sesko just before.
Jaysus watching Sky Sports recap and they've shown that extreme close up of Sesko's hand about 25 times.
Has anyone seen a replay of the potential penalty on Bruno near the end?
That would interest me, Bruno was very pissed at that.
Thanks. Just a normal coming together was the line fed to commentary.
Not a blatant pen, but worthy of more than 10 seconds of analysis if they want to maintain some illusion of integrity.
This is exactly why refs are terrified of giving us anything, and much more comfortable ruling against us. Anything that goes out way is scrutinized to absurd degrees while anything that goes against us is swept under the rug, often not even given a replay during the game. It's infuriating, and it has been going on for years. Refs know that anything they give us will be called into question, and it absolutely affects their decisionmaking.
Heard many people calling this a "blatant handball." Even when zoomed in 400% and viewed from every possible angle, you literally cannot see if there's a touch; and even if there is one, it's a brush of a fingertip that doesn't change anything at all. Nevertheless, "omg blatant handball, refs are always helping United!" All the while, our players get kicked to pieces week in week out, and our goals are put under a microscope to look for any possible fault.
I mean, I know butterfly effect and all but the game levelled from 2-0 with lots of time left anyway.....
Exactly. The bias is so obvious. The amount of angles and times they showed that Sesko goal was truly pathetic. Shame we have no one on punditry that will call out the double standards.
Yep this will just get ignored - and the fact that no replays were even shown illustrates this.
Had they disallowed the goal then I would like to think they would go back and look at this - but honestly I don’t think they would. Looked to me to be a potential red card and penalty.
Also the shove on Bruno should have been looked at - and Konate’s shove was the clearest foul you will see.
I feel like this situation really captures the problem with how VAR is being used. Sometimes this kind of situation is analyzed endlessly, of course by VAR, but also by commentators and pundits. Other times it's just dismissed as a coming together or whatever. The inconsistency is incredible.
It should be noted that Stuart Atwell was on VAR.
I’ve also seen people claiming it was a blatant handball but for the life of me I’ve seen no contact on the multiple replays and zooms they tried to show.
Also wasn’t there a new rule stating that it wouldn’t count as handball if the ball came off a body part first?
Also wasn’t there a new rule stating that it wouldn’t count as handball if the ball came off a body part first?
Ehh, I'll be honest from that video (which is not conclusive) I don't think that looks like a penalty.
It was handball. Would have been ridiculously soft to disallow it, but it objectively was.
Like Shearer said "that's where we are now", which is ruining football.
Not for handballs before scoring
Same, on MotD last night they were saying how the ball moves direction, but the spin of the ball doesn't change from after it hits his body as far as I can see
I think you can see the ball ever so slightly changing momentum and spin after the alleged contact with Sesko's hand. But it's all very grainy and speculative, which I assume is the reason they didn't overturn it. You had to best guess if there's a symptom of the contact while not having any proof of the contact itself, if that makes sense.
Would be the softest penalty we've ever had that.
Who knows anymore. Apparently it's just for penalty awards where the threshold is higher.
But I'm sure we've conceded a goal this season where a ball ricocheted off a players hand before they scored.
I agree. Never in a million years should that be a pen. To be fair, Bruno isn't helping himself. He's making a meal out of everything.Would be the softest penalty we've ever had that.
He could've easily had a red card for that foul on Szoboszlai (I think) and had like five yellows for dissent during the match.
We can't complain about decisions in this match for sure.
I don't think we have. The rule is that there's no accidental handball for the goal scorer. If it touches their hand then the goal is ruled out.
Any other player can have an accidental handball and play on so you have the ridiculous situation where if the ball deflects up into a players hand, in the box say, he can't score but can pass to a teammate who can score.
That scenario is probably what I'm thinking of, because there's definitely* been a goal against us where there's been a hand in the buildup.
*Probably. I do seem to remember this happening, just not able to recall the specifics.
There was a Middlesbrough one in the cup where the assister caught the fecking ball - the referee didn’t give it as he thought he would shoot and VAR could check but then he squared it and because he wasn’t scoring it still counted.
Doesn't that just sum up refereeing and VAR beautifully.
That is quite possibly the most angry I've ever been about a refereeing decision. An absolutely farcical lack of common sense on display.