Manchester United defender Harry Maguire scored from an offside position against Leicester City in the FA Cup as Ruud van Nistelrooy was left furious that a flag was not raised
Ruud van Nistelrooy was left raging after his side were knocked out of the FA Cup by a stoppage-time goal against Manchester United.
Former Foxes star Harry Maguire headed in as the Red Devils completed a second-half comeback at Old Trafford and progressed to the fifth round. The late goal was not without controversy however, with the imposing central defender appearing to be in an offside position.
Video assistant referee is not in use for the third and fourth round of the FA Cup regardless of the location and teams competing, so could not intervene. It is in use from the fifth round of the tournament however.
Ex-United interim boss Van Nistelrooy was aghast that VAR would have been required to make the decision anyway. The Dutchman believes it was an easy decision to make.
“We are not defeated in Fergie time, we are defeated in offside time,” he told ITV.
“This wasn’t necessary. VAR you have in a couple centimetres, a couple of inches, this was half a metre, clear in line. That was a hard one to take because the team deserves to draw in the end. Then extra time, stay in the game you, never know what happens.
“It was a very good team performance, started really well, pressing United. On the ball very stable. Deserved to go 1-0 up at half-time. Of course we know in the second half they’re going to put some pressure on us and some chances but not even that much.
“We deserved to go into extra time, go for the battle in extra time and maybe penalties. Decisions like these in our level are hard to swallow.”
United head coach Ruben Amorim also rejected the notion of ‘Fergie-time’ after a disappointing performance. “We had to believe until the end but this game has nothing to do with the time of Fergie,” said Amorim.
“I think the performance, we have to do so much better with the ball, without the ball. We didn’t have any energy in the beginning, especially in the first-half.
“Then in the second half we played a little bit better, with a little more speed, winning second balls. Then we managed to turn things around so it was a good result not a good performance.”
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