Milan’s equaliser in the final minute against Napoli was disallowed when Olivier Giroud was considered to be in an active offside position, reviving the debate started by Atalanta against Roma yesterday.
This proved a decisive incident, as Franck Kessie had equalised in stoppages at San Siro, but Giroud was judged to be in an active offside position despite lying on the ground underneath a Napoli defender.
However, Giroud did prevent Juan Jesus from clearing the ball effectively with his presence in an offside position, which is why it was considered active.
VAR did stick to the protocol this time – telling the referee to check the monitor and judge for himself – whereas the issue in Atalanta-Roma was that the VAR made the decision on whether Jose Luis Palomino’s offside was active or passive.
The offside rules state that:
“A player in an offside position at the moment the ball is played or touched* by a team-mate is only penalised on becoming involved in active play by:
- interfering with play by playing or touching a ball passed or touched by a team-mate or
- interfering with an opponent by:
- preventing an opponent from playing or being able to play the ball by clearly obstructing the opponent’s line of vision or
- challenging an opponent for the ball or
- clearly attempting to play a ball which is close when this action impacts on an opponent or
- making an obvious action which clearly impacts on the ability of an opponent to play the ball”