There was a lot of controversy surrounding the decision to allow Kylian Mbappe’s late winner versus Spain in Sunday’s UEFA Nations League final.
France won the game 2-1 courtesy of this and a fabulous goal from Karim Benzema.
But Dale Johnson of ESPN broke down why Mbappe’s goal was allowed to stand in a detailed and well-explained Twitter thread, as seen below…
Interesting application of offside in the #UEFANationsFinal for Kylian Mbappe's winner.
It's a decision which is correct in law to allow the goal, but one which many will feel should be disallowed in the spirit of the game.
Mbappe is clearly offside when the pass is played. pic.twitter.com/OWC7lUK0OT
— Dale Johnson (@DaleJohnsonESPN) October 10, 2021
This is the clause which is key to the onside decision in the Kylian Mbappe goal.
"A player in an offside position receiving the ball from an opponent who deliberately plays the ball, including by deliberate handball, is not considered to have gained an advantage."
— Dale Johnson (@DaleJohnsonESPN) October 10, 2021
At this point, Eric Garcia makes a deliberate play for the ball, and because he touches it that is considered to reset the offside phase and play Kylian Mbappe onside.
Quirk: if Garcia missed the ball completely at this point, Mbappe would be offside and the goal disallowed. pic.twitter.com/sY4ZMCzf35
— Dale Johnson (@DaleJohnsonESPN) October 10, 2021
So as explained in the above tweets by Johnson, Mbappe is ultimately onside because the defender touches the ball and because he was not interfering with the defender on that passage of play.
He later notes that Eric Garcia is essentially being penalised for attempting to play the ball due to Mbappe’s presence behind him, and that the Frenchman has profited from this failed attempt despite being offside when the ball is played from his teammate.
As the defender has touched the ball the offside sequence resets and this means Mbappe is onside.
Similar instances when this happened include Harry Kane against Liverpool in 2018 and Erling Haaland against Paderborn in the DFB Pokal last season.
Johnson also noted that most refs will take the cautious approach in this type of situation, and will give an offside instead.