Man United told two reasons why VAR didn’t intervene for Man City’s equaliser

Some Manchester United fans felt that Marcus Rashford should have been awarded a free kick before Phil Foden scored an equaliser for Manchester City on the other end.

United have since been told by former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher that the minimal contact was not the only reason behind the decision.

After scoring a screamer from outside the area to open the scoring, Rashford was again sprinting towards Ederson’s goal, with England teammate and Manchester City defender Kyle Walker behind him.

Walker appeared to nudge Rashford, who fell to the floor, but nothing was given. Afterwards, City would go up the other end, and Phil Foden would score their first of three on the day.

Erik ten Hag argued after the game that whilst the contact on Rashford was minimal, “when you’re in a full sprint and you get a little touch you lose the rhythm and that’s why he went down.”

Despite this, Gallagher has explained that the incident was too far back to overturn even if the decision of the VAR had deemed Rashford to be fouled.

“The referee is close, the referee said there was no foul,” the former official explained on Sky Sports’ Ref Watch.

“If VAR overruled the referee there, that is clearly re-refereeing and not a clear and obvious error. I didn’t think it was a foul, he went down very easily but it would have been too far back as well [to overturn the goal].”

Later in the game, there were further complaints when Ederson tackled Alejandro Garnacho shortly before City’s second goal. Gallagher again defended the referee and VAR after claiming the goalkeeper got the ball fairly, although he did stress it was a dangerous situation for the Brazilian.

“It is a good tackle for me, he gets the ball, he is low and he has to get the ball because if he doesn’t, he is in big trouble,” he added. “If he doesn’t get the ball, a) it is going to be a penalty and b) it is going to be a sending-off because once he goes without his hands, as I said many times, he becomes a defender and effectively, he is an outfield player going for this ball.”