Given that new photos indicate the hosts should have been awarded a throw-in during the previous phase of play, Kevin De Bruyne was fortunate that his incredible equalizer for Manchester City in their 1-1 draw at Real Madrid stood.
Vinicius Junior's spectacular goal gave Los Blancos the lead in the first leg of their Champions League semifinal after they withstood an early City storm.
Midway through the second half, Pep Guardiola's team also scored against the run of play, with De Bruyne scoring a goal that was nearly identical to Vinicius'.
Although Bernardo Silva was found to have barely kept the ball in play on the touchline, Real Madrid argued that the ball had left play in the half-minute or so before the equalizer.
De Bruyne's cross was blocked at the end of the phase of play, but Man City promptly regained control, setting up the Belgian's equalizer.
Prior to the goal, Real Madrid objected to the decision not to award a throw-in, and they were much more furious afterwards. Carlo Ancelotti received a booking as a result of their objections.
A 3D computer-generated image, akin to those used for goal-line technology, confirmed during a post-game program on beIN Sports that the ball had indeed left the field of play.
Ancelotti, who was incensed, remarked in his post-game press conference: "It was out. Technology, not just me, is speaking to this. It seems weird to me. I fail to get why VAR was not employed.
The use of VAR in such a situation is unusual but not unprecedented; for example, Real Madrid famously had a goal against them disallowed during their 4-1 home loss to Ajax in 2019 because it was unclear from the images whether the ball had left the field prior to the visitors' third goal of the game.
But in the end, De Bruyne's strike originated from a new phase of play, thus it was out of the scope of VAR regardless.
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