Howard Webb never exactly endeared himself to Liverpool when he was still reffing: when he awarded Manchester United a first-minute penalty and sent Steven Gerrard off in an FA Cup tie at Old Trafford in 2011, Ryan Babel posted this image on his twitter:
In his role as analyst on BT Sport (seriously, he's on every flippin' show) he emerged from his dark, sequestered war bunker to dispatch some truly incisive analysis during BT's live broadcast of Liverpool's romp against Leicester City.
Liverpool were cruising at 2-0, before an utterly mad error by Lucas Leiva handed Jamie Vardy the easiest goal he'll score in his life. Simon Mignolet rolled a kick-out square to Lucas, who contrived to control, and in his panic, he prodded the ball directly to Vardy, who converted.
Here it is in agonising frame-by-frame:
It turns out, however, that referee Craig Pawson should have spared Lucas his Anfield anguish, as the goal shouldn't have stood in the first place.
Webb came on the mic to say that the goal shouldn't have stood as Shinji Okazaki entered the penalty area before the ball had left it.
First of all, here's the proof that an infringement took place.
It relates to Law 16 of the rulebook, which states the following under the procedure surrounding a goal kick.
- The ball must be stationary and is kicked from any point within the goal area by a player of the defending team
- The ball is in play when it leaves the penalty area
- Opponents must be outside the penalty area until the ball is in play
This means that a player who enters the penalty area before the ball leaves it is committing an infringement. That's exactly what Okazaki did:
There you have it: in front of an added 8,000 supporters, Lucas should have been spared his pain.
See Also: Player Ratings: Here's How They Rated As Liverpool Blow Leicester Away
