Ex-Premier League referee reveals why Craig Pawson had no choice but to rule out Cherki goal and send Szoboszlai off

CRAIG PAWSON had no choice but to rule out what would have been Manchester City’s third goal against Liverpool.

Credit to Craig, he was waiting to see what happened when Rayan Cherki sent the ball towards an unguarded net in stoppage time with City 2-1 up.

Dominik Szoboszlai pulls Erling Haaland back but Craig waits to see if Haaland can still get to the ball.

That doesn’t happen, so when Haaland then pulls Szoboszlai back, that is stopping the Liverpool player from preventing the ball from going into the net.

No advantage had been signalled.

So once VAR John Brooks calls Craig across he has no choice – he has got to look at the first offence, the denial of a goal-scoring opportunity.

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Craig was correct in law. People will be saying ‘why didn’t he just give the goal?’.

But Haaland’s pull-back stopped the Liverpool player from clearing the ball.

For City’s penalty, Craig got that absolutely spot on. 

Alisson clattered Matheus Nunes and it was a nailed-on penalty – Liverpool can have no complaints.

The major factor was whether the ball was still in play. 

It was so the referee had no choice but to give the penalty.

Liverpool claimed Marc Guehi should have been sent off for pulling Mo Salah back on the edge of the box at 0-0.

But there was a covering defender so it was not a red card offence in my opinion.