Man City fume at ‘joke’ decision to allow Man Utd equaliser

Manchester City players angrily accosted the officials in the Old Trafford tunnel after their team’s controversial 2-1 derby defeat. City were particularly unhappy that referee Stuart Attwell failed to consult the pitchside screen in the wake of Bruno Fernandes’ equaliser.

Witnesses claimed Pep Guardiola, the City manager, was also seen expressing his anger while Harry Maguire emerged from the Manchester United dressing room to try to act as a peacemaker. United security staff were also involved in restoring order.

The goal in the 78th minute was initially ruled out, due to Marcus Rashford being offside, only for Attwell to award it on the grounds that the England forward was not interfering with play.

City players, including Kyle Walker, Jack Grealish and Manuel Akanji led the tunnel protests with Akanji later saying: “The first goal is a joke that it’s allowed. Rashford is clearly offside so I played him offside. He runs to the last second and only stops because Bruno is coming in behind him. I understand he doesn’t touch the ball but he runs for 30 metres, chasing the ball then he stops. The ref didn’t look at the situation.

“The referee didn’t say anything to me but I talked to the linesman and he said, ‘Did Rashford touch the ball?’ I said, ‘No, but he’s chasing the ball for a long time.’

 “The referee has to at least look at the situation and understand the situation I am in and [Walker] on the other side. Probably the pressure got to him in the stadium. That’s why he decided to let it go.”

Akanji confirmed that tempers were frayed in the tunnel. “I don’t know how it started,” he said, “but everybody was not in a good mood.”

Guardiola pointed out that while Rashford did not touch the ball, his run and presence forced his defenders into altering their play. The City manager claimed the fact the game was taking place at a packed Old Trafford was a factor in the decision.

“Rashford is offside, Fernandes is not offside,” Guardiola said. “The question is whether he is interfering with the action. When one player from the 18-yard box shoots and one player is in front of the ’keeper but doesn’t touch the ball, it is disallowed all the time. The decision is they didn’t believe Rashford was interfering in this stadium. This is Old Trafford, we have to play much better — like Anfield, we have to do better.”

The officials came to the right decision to award Bruno Fernandes’s equaliser for Manchester United and here is why. The offside law is split into two parts. Officials must consider the position of the player and when or if he commits an offence.

Marcus Rashford is clearly in an offside position when the ball is played and the assistant referee is correct to raise his flag. It is then down to the referee, Stuart Attwell, to decide if an offence has occurred and when doing that, four things are taken into consideration.

One, has the player played the ball; two, has he attempted to play the ball; three, has he interfered with an opponent; four, has he attempted to interfere with an opponent.

Attwell and Darren Cann, the assistant, would have discussed those matters and at the end decided that none of those four issues had been breached.

There was no argument either that Rashford’s run had interfered with or put off Ederson, the Manchester City goalkeeper, because that only applies if a player is obstructing the line of sight of the ball for the goalkeeper and Rashford was not.