was De Bruyne’s goal even LEGAL?

VAR should intervene even when it can’t intervene, Oliver Kahn responds by not responding and Harry Kane hints at Spurs stay in quotes that simultaneously ‘heighten rumours’ of a move to Manchester United. It’s one of those days.

Graphic violence
Slim pickings in tabloidland today. The fact Real Madrid-Man City – a nightmare scenario of a very good game between very good teams who played well and drew 1-1 – remains the top story across the tabloid sites the following lunchtime is unusual and revealing. Come on lads, where’s the nonsense?

But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to go at from the Bernabeu. Very Serious Journalists are being forced to write sentences like ‘there is still no credible suggestion Alf Inge Haaland threw food at Real Madrid fans’ for one thing, but as ever when all else fails there’s a concocted VAR ‘controversy’ to fall back on.

Now in the media’s defence here, they’ve effectively been given licence to focus on this by Carlo Ancelotti’s initial reaction to City’s goal and his even dafter post-match whinging.

The facts are these: some time before City’s equaliser the ball might have gone out for a throw-in before Bernardo Silva hooked it back into play. Real Madrid then regained possession, lost it again, and City went and scored. Even if the ball definitely went out of play, it would be a stretch to paint this as a VAR horror show.

But with absolutely no way to be sure the ball went out of play and no definitive camera angle covering the sideline, it’s just one of those things. We can’t even really say for sure there was a mistake, and if there was it was a) incredibly minor, b) entirely understandable and c) certainly didn’t come from VAR.

That’s no good, though. We need a controversy. And when there isn’t really a controversy, the best way to create one is with headlines that pose a question rather than just stating a fact – because there isn’t really much of a fact to state.

‘WAS CITY’S GOAL LEGAL?’ intones the Daily Mail with the sort of over-the-top seriousness they usually reserve for uncovering wokerati schemes to stop Brexit being brilliant. ‘Should Kevin De Bruyne’s Bernabeu goal have been disallowed?’

The answers to these questions are, at best, ‘Maybe not?’ and ‘Possibly?’

And it was all fuelled by a BeIN Sports graphic – or ‘shock new photo’ if you’re The Sun – that is in no way official and forms no part of VAR and was in any case…