Manchester United are into the fifth round of the FA Cup after coming from behind to beat Leicester, with Harry Maguire’s controversial stoppage-time goal the difference
Ruben Amoim admitted it was unfair that Manchester United’s last-gasp winner vs Leicester wasn’t disallowed.
The Red Devils squeaked into the fifth round of the FA Cup after coming from behind to beat the struggling Foxes at Old Trafford. Ex-Leicester defender Harry Maguire scored the decisive – and controversial – decider in stoppage time, despite replays showing he was clearly offside.
However, with VAR not in operation in the early rounds of the competition, the goal was allowed to stand, leaving their beaten opponents furious. And Amorim insisted he had sympathies with Ruud van Nistelrooy and his team, having benefitted from a poor officiating decision.
He said: “With VAR it’s not a goal. I think it’s important to have VAR because it’s fair for the game. It’s hard to lose like that with an offside play. But we deserve a little bit of luck.”
Defeat increases the pressure on United legend Van Nistelrooy, who bemoaned the fact that technology shouldn’t have been needed to spot what was a relatively clear offside.
“We were not defeated in Fergie time, we were defeated in offside time. Decisions like these, at our level, are hard to swallow,” he said. “This [VAR] wasn’t necessary. With VAR, you have for a couple of centimetres, but this was half a metre, clear in a line.
“It’s a hard one to take, because the team deserved a draw in the end. If you get extra-time and stay in the game, you never know what happens.
“It was a very good team performance, we did really well pressing United, on the ball we were really stable and we deserved to go in 1-0 up at half-time.
“We also deserved to go into extra-time and go for the battle and maybe penalties.”
Leicester had taken the lead in the first half through Bobby De Cordova-Reid, before Joshua Zirkzee equalised midway through the second. And the game looked set to go to extra time – and possibly penalties – before Maguire’s contentious winner in the 93rd minute.
“That’s a poor decision, the linesman [assistant referee] has got to see that,” ex-United skipper Roy Keane added on ITV. “You have got to get those big decisions right.”
Ian Wright agreed, saying: “Look where the linesman is. That impacts him [Van Nistelrooy] that impacts his managerial career because it’s another loss.
“That would have been a really big confidence booster for them. But they have to lift themselves, because of the officials.”
United can now continue the defence of the FA Cup they won under Erik ten Hag last term, but unlike his predecessor, Amorim insists that glory at Wembley won’t salvage an otherwise miserable season.
United currently find themselves marooned in the bottom half of the table, closer to the relegation zone than the bottom three.
Asked if an FA Cup triumph could save his maiden campaign in charge, Amorim said: “I don’t see things like that. I cannot focus just on saving the season with a cup, its not the way I see football, not the way I see Manchester United.
“Everything is results and performance. I’m not thinking about the end of the season, or the final at the end of the season, I don’t care about that. At the moment it is not good enough, we move forward to the next stage, but today was not good enough.”
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