Florian Wirtz thought he had equalised for Liverpool during the first-half of their Premier League encounter with Nottingham Forest, following Dan Ndoye's opener, only for VAR to rule his goal out
A VAR notice at Anfield
Florian Wirtz's goal was disallowed(Image: Getty Images)
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Ally McCoist has told Liverpool fans that VAR were right to rule out Florian Wirtz's goal in the first-half of Saturday's clash with Nottingham Forest. The two teams met at Anfield at 12.30pm, with the Tricky Trees striking first, Dan Ndoye capitalising on some sloppy defending 24 minutes in.
The Swiss winger passed the ball into the back of Alisson Becker's net from inside the area, silencing Reds fans inside the ground. While Wirtz looked to have given Liverpool a foothold in the clash just eight minutes later, the goal was correctly ruled out as a result of Jeremy Frimpong being in an offside position in the build-up.
Wirtz looked to have dispossessed James McAtee on the edge of the Forest area, with the ball bobbling and bundling into the path of Frimpong. The full-back then turned and squared the ball back to Wirtz, who fired home past a rooted Matz Sels as Anfield erupted in jubilation.
Celebrations were short-lived, however, with video replays highlighting that Frimpong was in an offside position as he received the ball, with Michael Oliver on VAR duty communicating the decision with Sam Barrott, much to the distaste of the majority inside Anfield.
And McCoist, who was on commentary duty for TNT Sports, was quick to explain the decision, spotting the offside well before Oliver and Barrott. He said: "Now, was he offside? Was Frimpong offside when it comes back in?
"It was a brilliant finish. Here you see it, right across the goalkeeper, through the defender's legs. There it goes, brilliant.
"Goalkeeper completely wrong-footed, no chance. They'll just have a little check at it, Darren, because when the ball come back into Frimpong, it was close. Just when it comes in...yep."
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Darren Fletcher, also on comms, then said: "Ally, you've called it; he's offside. Michael Oliver's seen it, the goal is going to be disallowed."
McCoist then added: "It's one of these ones, Darren. You don't get it right away because he's coming out.
"He's not going into the area, he's coming out and he's just slightly offside. I think it's [Ola] Aina that plays him off."
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Fletcher then added: "He's just explaining it here to Virgil van Dijk that he's going to disallow the goal. Michael Oliver had the look, and this is going to disappoint the Kop."
Further explaining the call, the Premier League Match Centre wrote on X: "#LIVNFO – 32’ VAR OVERTURN. VAR checked the referee’s call of goal – and determined that Frimpong was in an offside position and recommended that the goal was disallowed."