On Tuesday, Real Madrid beat Man United to win their first piece of silverware ahead of the 2017/18 season: the UEFA Super Cup. Los Blancos, the Champions League holders, beat the Europa League winners 2-1 in FYR Macedonia.
It was a game full of chances, but wastefulness in front of goal meant only Casemiro, Isco, and Lukaku made the score sheet. Controversy surrounded the opening goal of the game, scored by Brazilian defensive midfielder Casemiro, as the Selecao international appeared to be offside when Carvajal crossed him the ball – albeit by the slightest of margins.
The linesman failed to see anything wrong with the first-half strike and thus Zidane’s men went into the break with a 1-o lead. The Special One praised his players after the final whistle, claiming they would have forced extra-time had it not been for Casemiro’s "offside" goal.
“I think we did well, I think we lost to one goal which shows the result was really short and one of their goals was an offside. With a good VAR system it would be 1-1 and extra time," he told BT Sport (as per Goal).
"They could have scored more goals than they did, we could have scored more goals than we did. They had a period of dominance at middle of the first half and we had a period of dominance at middle of the second half."
Offside or not? Here's Casemiro's goal
Casemiro with his whiskers out of play, but that doesn't take anything away from the finish.#RMAMUN pic.twitter.com/G3HF1KnVTT
— fuboTV (@fuboTV) August 8, 2017
Although VAR is slowly making its way into professional football, technology wasn’t on Man United’s side in what could have been their fourth title under Jose.
Not everyone agreed on Casemiro being offside. Most sided with Mourinho, including Steve McManaman who said the Real Madrid midfielder was “officially” offside. Some argued in the Brazilian’s favor, however.
Former referee Juan Andujar Oliver insisted that ruling out the goal would have been harsh, as Casemiro is mostly – if not completely – in line with Chris Smalling’s foot.
"Look at the foot of [Chris] Smalling and it is not clear that he is offside," said the ex-official, as per Marca.
Was Casemiro offside? Should the game have gone into extra-time? Share your thoughts.
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