Manchester United earned a victory at Old Trafford as they hosted Wolves for their opening Premier League match of the season. Raphael Varane headed the hosts ahead in the second half to earn Erik ten Hag’s men all three points but things could have been very different if a VAR decision had gone against the hosts.
Wolves, who were the more dominant side on the night, had a penalty shout late in stoppage time. Pedro Neto swung a cross in from the right wing and targeted the back post. Manchester United’s goalkeeper, Andre Onana, came off his line to claim the ball but arrived late.
He missed it and cleaned out Wolves substitute Sasa Kalajdzic in the process with the pair clashing heads as Kalajdzic crumpled to the deck.
Referee Simon Hooper initially played on as VAR looked at the incident. As the replays were shown it looked increasingly likely that the United goalkeeper may have given away a penalty but the decision went his way much to the befuddlement of many on social media.
BBC pundit and former England star Gary Lineker tweeted: “United got away with one there. If the referee had given it they certainly wouldn’t have overruled the decision.”
Jeff Stelling, the recently departed presenter of Sky’s Gillette Soccer Saturday, was less composed and labelled the VAR decision “pathetic” saying:
“Remind me if I have said this before but VAR. pathetic. How can that not be a Wolves pen? Just a joke as it has been since its inception.”
Other takes agreed that Onana had committed a foul with Sky’s Michelle Owen tweeting: “Contact with consequence… how is that not a penalty?! #MNF”
ITV’s Mark Pougatch claiming that VAR didn’t do its job to overturn the “howler”. He said: “So VAR gets involved to give a penalty against Son at Brentford yesterday but decides to let that one go… to start the season.
“VAR was introduced to eradicate the howler. Personally didn’t think the Brentford penalty was in that category. But THAT was a howler. I know nothing. #MUNWOL”
Over on Sky Sports, former Manchester United captain Gary Neville agreed that the penalty should have been awarded saying:
“The reason I think it was a penalty was because Onana was nowhere near the ball. I think he was never getting there, he was always under it so he could’ve made a decision before he jumped.”
Had the decision been overturned Wolves would have been awarded a late penalty and the chance to equalise which was what their performance deserved. Unfortunately this one went against them and Manchester United claimed the points.
