First controversial moment of World Cup after Ecuador goal disallowed

Ecuador opened the scoring against Qatar in the first match of the World Cup. In the build up to the clash, there were rumours that the match had been fixed so that the home team would win. Those rumours increased even more after Enner Valencia's goal was chalked off for offside. 

Qatar goalkeeper Al-Sheeb came out of his goal to punch. It was a poor punch and he left his goal exposed. Ecuador continued the move and the ball reached the Ecuador captain. He headed home at the far post with the goalkeeper completely out of position.

Why was the goal disallowed though? Replays showed that when Al-Sheeb jumped to clear, Felix Torres jumped as well and got his head to the ball. Michael Estrada was very close to both Torres and the goalkeeper, but his foot was ever so slightly offside. After Torres headed the ball, it went up in the air, bounced and then Estrada overhead kicked the ball to Valencia at the back stick. 

The VAR disallowed the goal and despite initial confusion, further inspection showed that it was the correct decision. In any case, Ecuador took the lead with a 16th minute penalty scored by Valencia after a foul by Al-Sheeb. Valencia then netted once again just after the half hour mark to make it 0-2 at the interval.

 

November 20, 2022