Former Manchester United defender Patrice Evra has faulted the decision of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) to disallow the Netherlands’ goal against France in the 2024 Euro Championship.
Recall that Xavi Simons’s goal was disallowed in the second half by the VAR for offside.
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However, Evra insisted that there was nothing wrong with the goal scored by the Netherlands.
“It’s a shocking decision; that should be a goal. Someone should tell me about this rule.
“The Dutch player was not blocking Maignan’s view. Maybe the person sitting in the VAR room tonight was Stevie Wonder.
“It’s a clear goal. As a Frenchman, I should be finding an excuse, but I can’t; it’s a goal,” Evra said.
5 Comments
Some of these ex-footballers can be shockingly ignorant sometimes.
Now Evra is the one sounding like Stevie Wonder. Cos it seems he was blind to see that there was no way the GK could dive to his left with Georgino obstructing his dive path, albeit from an offside position.
Even if the GK had a 0.001% chance of saving that well-placed shot from Simons, Georgino’s position denied him that chance.
Monsieur Patrice, go and update your knowledge of the rules of the modern game. Any form of obstruction to the movement of the GK by an opposing player is termed an “undue advantage” and will be called for as an infringement.
Many people forget that footballers are often the least educated members of society. A footballer’s career usually starts at age 12-14, but even before that time, they would have spent a considerable amount of time (age 8-12) honing their skills on the playground. This does not give room for any academic endeavor. Most of them do not even have WASC and when they do, it is usually with poor results, especially in analytical areas like mathematics.
It is these people who then want to dominate football at the tactical coaching level a level akin to chess, that requires skills of pattern recognition and increasingly these days data analysis.
In fact, it is almost a truism that successful coaches are usually failed footballers (Klopp, Ten Hag, Nagelsmann) and vice versa. It is also a near truism that midfielders (Guardiola, Emery, De Zerbi, Arteta, Xavi, Gasperini, Ancelotti) make the best coaches, followed by defenders (Kompany, Pochettino, Ten Hag, Silva) and then forwards.
Midfielders have greater in-game exposure to the changes in transition that characterises the typical football match. Defenders also, because they have time to observe and anticipate, but forwards do not! Forwards are always in attack mode as a consequence they do not see the big picture.
The point is, it is not surprising that Finidi, a forward, failed. In fact, Eguavoen a defender was a much more successful coach for the SE than Finidi.
Well said @Tristan
That’s why it baffles me sometimes when the gullible lot in society have to listen to sports people, entertainers, influencers etc. to make decisions that will affect their lives. Majority of these so called ‘ Role Models ‘ are mostly out of touch, better yet, lack the intellect or education and are less informed to be taken seriously. They are simply out of their depth.
If they really want to be taken seriously, they should find the time to brush up their knowledge and get educated or they should just stick to what their fortè; entertaining.
Lampard?
Lampard is good.