Nottingham Forest winger Dan Ndoye had a goal ruled out against Fulham at the City Ground after a VAR offside check
Nottingham Forest winger Dan Ndoye has a goal ruled out against Fulham for offside(Image: PA)
Pundit Micah Richards has blasted the offside call for Nottingham Forest’s disallowed goal against Fulham as “absolutely ridiculous”.
Winger Dan Ndoye thought he had put the Reds on course for what would have been a huge win in Sunday’s clash at the City Ground. Brought on at half-time, the Switzerland international beat Bernd Leno with a fine finish just past the hour mark only for VAR to intervene.
Forest head coach Vitor Pereira admitted he had celebrated what he thought was a perfectly fine goal, but the review deemed Ndoye to have been offside by the finest of margins. It left the hosts having to settle for a 0-0 draw and a point, rather than a victory that would have given them some breathing space in the relegation battle.
“This one here is absolutely ridiculous,” Richards said as he reviewed the Ndoye incident on Match of the Day. “It is so tight.
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“The run, really good. Can he finish it? He finishes it and then it comes to this (the VAR review). It is just remarkable. It is so bad, but rules are rules.”
Jamie Redknapp said on Sky Sports of the same VAR decision: “This is as tight of an offside you could possibly get. This is where we don’t give advantage to the strikers. You see it, where has he got an advantage?
“It’s so tight. I couldn’t even tell. I looked at it 100 times.”
On X, the Premier League Match Centre posted at the time: “#NFOFUL – 64’ VAR OVERTURN: VAR checked the referee’s call of goal – and established that Ndoye was in an offside position and recommended that the goal was disallowed.”
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Such fine margins could prove crucial in the Reds’ bid for survival. Pereira’s men responded to West Ham United’s draw with Manchester City the previous evening by claiming a stalemate of their own to climb back out of the bottom three on goal difference.
Pereira said of Ndoye’s disallowed strike: “I celebrated a goal. I waited for the decision. I was so convinced it was a clear goal. In the end, it’s football.
“It is difficult to understand. If it was a clear offside situation… but it was one centimetre.
“Against Liverpool, the decision was to give the goal. Today, it was the opposite.
“This is modern football that we have now. You cannot celebrate goals. I celebrated because I didn’t see anything to cancel the goal.
“What I retain in my mind about this game is the spirit of the team. They tried everything to win this game. The players from the bench tried to help win the game. This is the spirit we need to keep until the end of the season.”
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