Manchester City sparked VAR controversy as John Stones scored a 95th-minute header to secure a win at Wolves.
England’s John Stones powered in Phil Foden’s cross to ignite wild celebrations among the away fans, thinking they were heading for a 2-1 victory. However, confusion followed as Video Assistant Referee Stuart Attwell stepped in.
At first, City players and coach Pep Guardiola were outraged when Kavanagh ruled the goal offside—a decision many in the stadium were unaware of as City players celebrated with the away fans. Wolves manager Gary O’Neil was seen shouting at Guardiola and his staff, “he’s offside, he’s offside.”
According to the PGMOL, the assistant referee had actually raised the flag for offside during City’s celebrations. As a result, the goal was initially overturned, much to the delight of the Wolves bench. However, replays revealed doubts about Bernardo Silva’s involvement in the goal.
The stadium announcement revealed that the check was for an ‘Offside,’ surprising many at Molineux who had seen nothing wrong at first. This led to widespread celebrations among the home fans, who thought the goal had been allowed to stand and that VAR was now reviewing it to rule it out.
Following the announcement of the check, the decision was made to send Chris Kavanagh to the monitor. Kavanagh reviewed the footage and saw that as Foden crossed the ball, Bernardo Silva was engaged in a tussle with Wolves goalkeeper Jose Sa. The key question was whether Bernardo’s actions were interfering with Sa as Stones headed the ball into the net.
The video footage revealed that when Stones made contact with the ball, Silva, although in an offside position, was no longer engaging with his Portugal teammate Sa and was not obstructing his view of the ball.
With most of the 22 outfield players and several substitutes watching closely, Kavanagh examined the monitor a few times, then turned, gestured that he had reviewed the footage, and pointed to the center spot.
“Gary O’Neil is perplexed, and he can’t believe it,” said Don Goodman, who lives on Sky Sports. “This is very controversial.”
A statement from the PGMOL read: “Stones’ goal was disallowed on-field due to Bernardo Silva being in an offside position and in the goalkeeper’s line of vision.
“The VAR deemed Bernardo Silva wasn’t in the line of vision and had no impact on the goalkeeper and recommended an on-field review. The referee overturned his original decision, and a goal was awarded.”
City boss Guardiola said: “Of course, I didn’t understand it. Linesman, I don’t know the reason why he did it [disallow the goal].
“But Bernardo isn’t disturbing the position. It was difficult in the first moment. Today, in modern football, they starve the keeper. In the moment what happened [Jose] Sa had the perfect vision. The taker from Phil [Foden] and the header [by John Stones] were magnificent.”
Stones himself said: “I thought it had been chalked off. I tried to speak to the ref but he had a lot of people around him. For me, it is the right call. Obviously, I am going to be biased, but I think it should stand.”
Clinton Morrison, summarising for the BBC, said: “I think it was the right decision to give the goal; Bernardo Silva wasn’t offside.”
Wolves have struggled this season, failing to secure a victory in any of their first eight league matches. With only one point to their name so far, it marks their worst start to a top-flight campaign in 41 years, leaving the team and fans frustrated as they look for a turnaround in their fortunes.
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