PGMOL give final verdict on disallowed Virgil van Dijk goal in Man City vs Liverpool

Virgil van Dijk had a header ruled out for Liverpool in their 3-0 defeat to Manchester City and now PGMOL chief Howard Webb has given his verdict on the VAR decision

PGMOL chief Howard Webb has weighed in on Virgil van Dijk's disallowed goal for Liverpool in their loss to Manchester City. City claimed a 3-0 victory over the reigning Premier League champions at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

Erling Haaland had put City in the lead in the first half, but Liverpool believed they had levelled the score with a Van Dijk header. However, Van Dijk's goal was ruled out after Andy Robertson was deemed to be offside and interfering with play.

Nico Gonzalez and Jeremy Doku went on to add to the score sheet to secure the three points for City against Liverpool. The result moved Pep Guardiola's side up to second place in the Premier League table and four points behind leaders Arsenal.

Chris Kavanagh refereed the match with Michael Oliver handling VAR duties. Webb, appearing on the 'Match Officials Mic'd Up' programme alongside Michael Owen, has backed the decision by the officials to disallow Van Dijk's goal against City, reports the Mirror.

"For sure Michael [Oliver], a huge decision in a big game," said Webb. "As the ball moves towards Robertson - three yards out from goal in the middle of the six-yard box - he makes that clear action to duck below the ball. It goes just over his head and finds the goal in the half of the six-yard box where he is.

"The officials have to make a judgement, did that clear action impact on the goalkeeper and his ability to save the ball? That's where the subjectivity comes into play.

"They looked at that action so close to the goalkeeper and formed that opinion.

"I know that's not a view held by everybody but it's not unreasonable to understand why [the officials] would form that conclusion when the player is so close to the goalkeeper, the ball is coming right towards him and he has to duck to get out of the way.

"They form the conclusion that it impacts Donnarumma's ability to dive towards the ball and make the save.

"Once they've made that on-field decision, the job of the VAR is to look at that and decide was the outcome clearly and obviously wrong.

"Only Donnarumma truly knows if he was impacted by this and we have to look at the factual evidence."

On Monday, it was revealed that Liverpool had reached out to the PGMOL to express their concerns about Van Dijk's goal being disallowed in the clash at the Etihad. Liverpool head coach Arne Slot also voiced his frustration at the decision following the defeat to City.

"It is difficult to give my view. It is obvious and clear that the wrong decision has been made, at least in my opinion," said Slot after the final whistle at the Etihad.

"He didn't interfere at all with what the goalkeeper could do. Immediately after the game, someone showed me the goal that the same referee allowed - City against Wolves last season.

"So it took the linesman 13 seconds to raise his flag to say it was offside. So there was clearly communication, but as I said, that could have influenced the game in a positive way for us."

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