Why was France’s offside goal disallowed? A rule, says the referee. It makes no sense, Busquets rages

The Nations League final between France and Spain offered a very interesting spectacle. Apart from a great finish by Oyarzabal and a wonderful goal by Benzema, we also saw a disputed offside goal, which is fine according to the rules.

We didn’t see a goal in the first half, the second act offered a much more interesting spectacle. Mikel Oyarzabal opened the scoring in the 64th minute, but just two minutes later the game was level.

Karim Benzema found the ball on the corner of the big white space, put it in the middle and swept the crossbar of Simon’s goal.

And France managed to turn the game around when Mbappé scored in the 80th minute. But his goal was quite controversial. He was clearly offside at first glance.

Spain was upset that the goal was offside and should not have stood. However, Eric García tried to stop the pass with a slip, but only sent the ball into the run of Mbappé.

“For us, it looked like an offside on the pitch. The referee said that when Eric tried to play the ball, the offside was cancelled, but that doesn’t make sense,” Busquets fumed on El Chirinquito television.

“It was a clear offside. The referee said I tried to play the ball. What am I supposed to do? Stand back and let it go? Apparently that’s the rule,” García told El Chirinquito.

If García had tried to kick the ball but missed it and headed towards Mbappé, it would have been offside. But García’s touch was really minimal, he didn’t have much chance to clear the ball. Therefore, the application of this rule looks rather strange.

Source: Goal, El Chiringuito, Twitter