VAR in the Spotlight Again: Disallowed Goal and Szoboszlai Red Card Overshadow City’s Win at Anfield

Anfield, once the theatre of dreams, became the stage for another VAR morality play as Manchester City edged Liverpool 2-1 in a finish clouded by a disallowed goal and a late red card shown to Dominik Szoboszlai with the sort of certainty more befitting Inspector Clouseau than a top-flight referee.

The decisive moment arrived in stoppage time. With Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson stranded upfield, City substitute Rayan Cherki scooped a hopeful shot from inside the centre circle toward the unguarded goal. Erling Haaland gave chase; Szoboszlai grabbed the Norwegian’s shirt in desperation. Referee Craig Pawson, after a protracted VAR review conducted by John Brooks, ruled that Szoboszlai’s tug had denied an obvious scoring opportunity. He awarded a direct free-kick to City and produced a straight red for the Hungarian midfielder, simultaneously chalking off what would have been City’s third goal.

Replays shown inside the ground indicated that Haaland had also pulled Szoboszlai seconds earlier, yet Pawson’s explanation—audible only in muffled bursts—singled out the Liverpool man’s initial hold as the offence that cancelled both the strike and Haaland’s subsequent foul. The decision preserved the 2-1 scoreline and kept City within touching distance of league leaders Arsenal.

Szoboszlai’s evening had begun brightly: he curled a superb free-kick past Gianluigi Donnarumma to give Liverpool a first-half lead. Yet he played City’s Bernardo Silva onside for the equaliser, and his stoppage-time intervention ended his night early, trudging down the tunnel before the final whistle.

Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville captured the sentiment of many viewers: “No football person would disallow that goal.” Under the current interpretation the officials, stationed hundreds of miles away at Stockley Park, followed protocol to the letter; whether the letter serves the spirit of the game is the debate now raging from the Kop to living rooms nationwide.

For City, the victory keeps their title hopes alive. For Liverpool, the sense of injustice will linger far longer than the flight of Cherki’s mis-hit lob. And for VAR, another high-profile controversy only sharpens calls for reassessment of a system that, on nights like this, feels as intrusive as it is infallible.