A “gray area”. After the very contentious goal refused to Lamine Camara by François Letexier during the match of the 16th day of Ligue 1 between Olympique de Marseille and AS Monaco on Sunday evening, the Technical Refereeing Department provided explanations in its traditional weekly debrief this Monday evening.
Shortly after returning from the locker room, the Senegalese midfielder from Monaco opened the scoring after a nice move from the Monegasques. Before the assistant referee signaled an offside by Folarin Balogun, accused of playing on goal.
“He plays a game”
“We looked at the images in the locker room and until now we don’t understand how they can cancel this goal,” Lamine Camara reacted after the match. We can’t do anything about certain decisions, the referees decide. »
Largely in an illegal position at the start of the action, the American, although in a duel with Olympian defender Nayef Aguerd, did not seem to really weigh on the game and even less on his team’s goal a few seconds later. “He plays a game. For me, there is an impact,” judges the video referee on the spot, before ratifying the decision. Without admitting a potential error, the DTA recognizes a “gray area” in the analysis of the situation.
“Having regard to the initial movement of the Marseille defender (Aguerd) towards the presumed drop point of the ball, quickly hampered by the offside position of the Monegasque attacker (Balogun), it is not clearly erroneous to estimate that the latter’s position influenced the defender’s ability to play the ball,” justifies the body.
“Thus, the decision to cancel the goal may not be considered as a obvious error in the sense of the video assistance protocol, even if that of granting the goal could also have naturally been considered,” she then assures.
A situation therefore falling within the discretion of the referee of the match, who was however not called by the VAR to go and review the images at the edge of the pitch.
Another situation analyzed
Olympique de Marseille could also have obtained a penalty in the second half. On an attempt by Mason Greenwood, the ball hit the thigh of Denis Zakaria, before probably touching the hand of Mohamed Salisu in the Monaco area. Here again, François Letexier does not flinch after a quick intervention in the video.
“Being unable to confirm the existence of this contact without the slightest doubt, the video referee rightly decided not to intervene further,” explains the DTA.
Olympique de Marseille ended up winning at the Stade Vélodrome thanks to a goal from Mason Greenwood, decisive at the end of the match (88th). The Olympians are third in the standings and relegate their neighbor Monaco to ninth position before the international break.
