VIDEO – Was this offside? Epolo gets away with a major blunder with the help of VAR
What inspired Matthieu Epolo? The Standard goalkeeper thought he had all the time to play football, but his overconfidence was punished in the final phase by STVV striker Bertaccini. A serious blunder, but the VAR ruled it was offside. Please judge for yourself. Felice Mazzu already felt his team had been “robbed of a point”.
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He had already seen STVV’s equalizer hit the post, so goalkeeper Matthieu Epolo simply wanted to get the win at all costs.
He initially let a long ball run, but then decided to keep it inside to buy time. A wrong choice, because Bertaccini had followed well and punished the Standard goalkeeper’s overconfidence with the equalizer.
A monumental blunder, but VAR had the final say. The video referee did not judge that a new phase had begun during Epolo’s control and ruled out the equalizer for offside. Justifiably?
Standard defender Ibe Hautekiet breathed a sigh of relief. “Epolo must not have seen it for a while, he probably wanted to buy time,” he said.
“It was going to be a very expensive mistake, so luckily it was offside.”
Mazzu: “We were robbed of a point”
“The regulations are very clear. Adriano (Bertaccini) is offside on that first ball. No one touches that ball until it reaches the goalkeeper,” STVV coach Felice Mazzu analyzed after the whistle.
“The goalkeeper has the opportunity to pick it up and decides to check with his feet. Adriano is at that moment 5 meters from him. That is a second phase. So we were robbed of a point today.”
Olivier Dumont, who scored the tying goal for STVV, also gave his view on the situation. “When the goalkeeper has control of the ball, a second phase begins.”
“Epolo wants to buy some time and then pick up the ball. I think it was certainly not offside.”
