Unai Emery’s Aston Villa had a goal controversially disallowed in their last-day encounter with Manchester United after Altay Bayindir – and the Premier League have now released an official statement to explain the referee’s decision-making.
Days after losing the Europa League final to Tottenham Hotspur, Ruben Amorim’s men put in a comfortable performance against the Champions League-chasing Villans. But, after losing 2-0 to the Red Devils, they now have to settle for Europa League action.
In pursuit of Europe’s top table, the visitors were defensively resolute throughout but provided very little in the final third until the game’s latter stages – and that’s when the man in the middle, Thomas Bramall, irked the away matchgoers.
Premier League Release Statement
‘The incident was not reviewable by the VAR’
Despite it being against the run of play, the Villa Park-based outfit had the chance to earn the advantage – and, as a result, boost their chances of securing Champions League action for next season – just after the 70-minute mark when Morgan Rogers was chasing down a loose ball.
Altay Bayindir, who was stationed in between the sticks ahead of Andre Onana, came out to pick up the ball but, as the footage shows, the Turkey international never gathered the ball. Chelsea-linked Rogers nicked it and converted into an empty net but the Englishman’s goal was ruled out.
“He’s never got the ball in his hands, Ally. That’s not a foul!” TNT Sports commentator Darren Fletcher told Ally McCoist.
The Villa Park faithful, understandably, are irked by the fact that Champions League football for next term was stolen from their grasp – and taking to X (formerly Twitter) to provide the reasoning behind why Bramall chalked off Rogers’ goal. Insisting that the incident was not eligible for VAR review because Bramall had blown the whistle before Rogers’ shot caressed the back of the Manchester United net, the Premier League wrote:
Just minutes after, Manchester United’s dominance of the affair paid off after two of Amorim’s best performers this season, Amad and Bruno Fernandes, combined. Christian Eriksen, in his final appearance for the Red Devils, converted from 12 yards out.
In what has been an otherwise dismal campaign for Amorim – one of the best young managers in world football – and his entourage, Manchester United went home with a deserved win. Villa, however, fell out of the top five and will now play in Europe’s second tier club competition.
