"I'm going to have blooming high blood pressure" - Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer slam 'peculiar' VAR decision in 2022 FIFA World Cup opener between Qatar and Ecuador
Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer were left baffled by a 'peculiar' offside decision made by VAR at the opening game of the 2022 FIFA World Cup between hosts Qatar and Ecuador.
Ecuadorian skipper Enner Valencia seemingly opened the scoring in the third minute of the game when he headed home. Felix Torres provided an acrobatic pass for Valencia after Michael Estrada headed the ball down.
Estrada, however, was ruled offside. Lineker and Shearer were left scratching their heads at the decision. The BBC pundits present at the Al Bayt stadium couldn't digest the decision.
FIFA have clarified Michael Estrada (who headed the ball back to Félix Torres) was the player offside for Enner Valencia's disallowed goal. It's his foot not Valencia's knee that caused VAR to intervene.
Lineker said (via Express):
"He could conceivably have had a hat-trick but I do know if it had been given as a goal, everything is different. But VAR, they found a way!"
Shearer added:
"I'm going to have blooming high blood pressure at the end of the month if it continues like this Gary. I don't think there is any person watching this in the world that thinks this is offside. The ball goes up, the challenge is there, we are all thinking 'Okay, it's not a high kick there, he wins a header there, fair header there' - then it's in the back of the net."
Lineker added:
"Technically, you could make an argument that because when he heads, it goes up and bounces and fiddles around a bit. But really? I mean, pfft, peculiar."
Former Swansea City defender Ashley Williams also chimed in on the discussion, saying:
"It's like what you said Al, everybody watching the game just thought, 'goal, goal' straight away."
Shearer responded:
"Madness. The sad thing is you have 60,000 in the stadium and none of them had a clue what was going on. Millions around the world, nobody had a clue what was going on. There was no information being fed back at all. That can't be right."
Ecuador start 2022 FIFA World Cup with a win against Qatar
Ecuador started their 2022 FIFA World Cup campaign with a 2-0 win against Qatar despite Enner Valencia's goal being disallowed.
The Ecuadorian skipper managed to bag a first-half brace. They will return to action against the Netherlands on 25 November. Qatar, meanwhile, will play Senegal next on the same day.
Enner Valencia wins the first Player of the Match award of the World Cup 👏 https://t.co/6sLm36RY82