The incredible mistake of a referee in the Asian Cup: he missed the sign and delayed Saudi Arabia’s victory in the last play

Football in times of VAR can lead to unusual confusions. Is in the Asian Cupin the duel between Saudi ArabiaScaloneta executioner in Qatar 2022, e Oman from group F. What happened? A strange signal from the referee of the duel made those who shouldn’t have celebrated wildly.

Saudi Arabia, the favorites in the duel, did not go beyond a 1-1 draw with Oman. For those led by Roberto Mancini it was a bitter debut. But a last minute corner would be decisive in changing history. Defender Ali Al-Bulayhi connected at the far post after a teammate brushed his hair to spark the frenzy of Saudi fans who packed the Khalifa International Stadium. It happened that the Australian referee Evan Shaun Robert disallowed the goal for alleged offside.

The VAR intervention was almost immediate because the central defender was clearly qualified. The order was quickly followed by Evan Shaun, who raised his left hand to signal offside followed by crossing his arms to indicate that he was not. What happened is that everyone remained with the first gesture, that of the raised arm. The Omanis, the players and the substitutes celebrated. Much more: they served quickly to catch their opponents in a bad position.

It was then that the referee had to intervene to explain what he had been trying to say with his confused gestures. Yes, it was a validated goal for Saudi Arabia. So the party changed color and those dressed in green went to celebrate with their fans, while the Omani footballers held their heads.

In the duel, Oman took the lead in the 14th minute with Salaah Al Yahyaei’s penalty and withstood the Saudi siege until Abdulrahman Ghareeb scored just three minutes into the second half.

Al Bulayhi then scored in the sixth minute of injury time when Ali Lajami sent in the cross which the Al Hilal defender sent into the net.

Supachai Chaided instead scored a brace in Thailand’s 2-0 win against Kyrgyzstan in the other Group F match.

Thailand dominated at will at the Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium. After many of his teammates wasted favorable opportunities, Supachai expressed his team’s clear superiority by scoring in the 26th minute, taking advantage of a rebound left by goalkeeper Erzhan Tokotaev.

Supachai scored his second goal shortly after the restart following another one-on-one.