Fans baffled as reason for Ecuador goal being ruled out vs Qatar finally emerges

It took a matter of minutes before VAR left fans and pundits scratching their heads in the opening game of the World Cup between Qatar and Ecuador.

Former West Ham forward Enner Valencia thought he had given the South American nation the lead with a header following a glaring error by Qatar goalkeeper Saad Al Sheeb. However, after a lengthy check, VAR ruled the goal out for offside.

Al Sheeb had come off his line to try and punch the ball clear but miscued before Michael Estrada presented Valencia with a simple header with an acrobatic assist. It would have been the fastest opening goal in World Cup history at 160 seconds, but it was ruled out after a long check before play eventually resumed in the eighth minute.

There must always be two defenders between the attacking player and the goal line to avoid an offside infringement, but the issue was complicated by the goalkeeper coming far off his line. In this case, Ecuador were penalised as Estrada was found to be beyond the second-last opposition outfield player.

There was mass confusion about the original decision, which is not one which is regularly seen. Dion Dublin was equally confused while on commentary duty for BBC Sport, saying: "That is the loudest the stadium has been! That is amazing. I can't see where the offside has come from. Is it a push on the keeper, maybe? I don't know why that has been disallowed."

Replays finally showed that Estrada was indeed offside, but only after many perplexed fans had voiced their opinions on social media, while some were still not convinced. One account wrote on Twitter: "They annulled the goal to Ecuador after reviewing the Var for 2 minutes. It is not known why. There is no offside."

Were you confused by the offside decision? Have your say in the comments!

Some supporters lamented the lack of audio which could have explained the officials' decision, while another account wrote: "IT DOES NOT CONVINCE ME! The VAR shows that Enner is one foot ahead, but when this happened the ball was already in the Qatari area."

Popular pundit Chris Kamara also weighed in on the situation, adding: "Been rewinding that Ecuador goal & rewound it & rewound it. Hopefully, it's not our boys on VAR."

Fortunately for Ecuador, they soon took the lead as Valencia, their captain, was brought down in the box after knocking the ball beyond Al Sheeb. The Fenerbahce centre-forward cooly rolled his penalty into the bottom corner in the 16th minute before celebrating with his teammates once again.

Valencia added his second in the 31st minute with a fine header at the back post from Angelo Preciado's fine cross.

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