FIFA denies ball hit overhead camera cable during Jude Bellingham’s equaliser
Late in the first half of the England-Norway match in the World Cup quarter-final, shortly before England’s Jude Bellingham scored the tying goal, a cable appeared to snap across the pitch at goal kick.
Bellingham managed to score once again as England won 2-1 against the Norwegian team at the Miami Stadium, this time scoring the match winner in extra time.
But England’s fourth trip to the World Cup semi-finals was rocked by controversy in the lead-up to their first goal.
As a rule, if the ball had been noticed to have hit the wire, play would be stopped and a dropped ball would be used to determine possession.
More than an hour later, FIFA said there was “no evidence” that the ball hit the wire, citing the technology inside the ball.
“Prior to England’s goal… the sensor inside the tethered ball showed no peak in the ‘ball heartbeat’ while in the air and therefore there was no evidence that the ball had touched the wire in the air and altered the ball’s movement,” FIFA said.
It is unclear when and how FIFA reviewed this data.
The match was not interrupted and it is not known whether video assistant referee Jerome Brisard even reviewed the play. Brisard was also a VAR in the quarter-final Argentina-Egypt match; In this match, Argentina rallied to win 3-2 and Egypt complained that the refereeing was unfair.
Norwegian goalkeeper Orjan Nyland took the kick to start the game in question on Saturday, which was controlled by England seconds after the ball’s trajectory changed, suggesting the ball had brushed against one of the cables used to suspend a robotically controlled camera. The ball was eventually played to Bellingham, who beat Nyland with a low shot to the far post.
Nyland smacked the pitch in frustration, and he, Norwegian star forward Erling Haaland and coach Stale Solbakken made comments to French referee Clement Turpin after the game and heading into halftime.
In the Argentina-Egypt match, the Egyptians came off the scoreboard in the 58th minute after a VAR review detected Marwan Attia fouling Argentine defender Lisandro Martínez.
Norway strikes first
Andreas Schjelderup opened the scoring for Norway with a superb strike in the 36th minute.
Even if England keep Erling Haaland goalless for the first time in his country’s last 16 matches, Norway will feel they deserve more from the game and will emerge from the World Cup with their heads held high for the first time in 28 years.
Perhaps due to the stifling heat, the first half was a tricky affair but Norway came to life in the 35th minute when Julian Ryerson headed Haaland’s header past goalkeeper Jordan Pickford.
A minute later, Patrick Berg stripped possession of the ball from Harry Kane almost halfway through and released Schjelderup down the left, where the winger turned England full-back Ezri Konsa and then curled his shot into the goal.
England were rattled and Norway took full advantage with Alexander Sörloth sending a towering shot over the bar and Martin Odegaard drilling a low shot which Pickford parried.
They should have doubled the lead in the 44th minute when they briefly went two-on-one in England’s half, but Sörloth decided not to pass to Haaland and the defenders recovered ground to clear the danger.
England’s equality
Norway would come to regret their profligacy in injury time later in the half, when Bellingham created an equalizer of real quality with a smart ball from Anthony Gordon on the edge of the penalty area.
Bellingham took one touch to guide the ball into the area, another touch past the defender and then lobbed the ball over goalkeeper Nyland and into the far corner of the net.
The rest of the half was all England and Kane put the ball back into the goal and was ruled offside, a decision confirmed by VAR.
In the 10th minute of the second half, Torbjorn Heggem was called to VAR again when he thought he had given Norway the lead from the corner, and the goalkeeper’s goal was erased as a result of Haaland’s push on Elliot Anderson.
Norway’s introduction of speedy winger Oscar Bobb in the 67th minute triggered another period of dominance as England kept a clean sheet when David Moller Wolfe headed the ball over Pickford and towards goal.
England right winger Bukayo Saka came close to helping his team take the lead in the 78th minute with a dangerous cross that sailed over the goal, but Norway quickly returned to the attack.
However, Saka had another great chance in the 87th minute by coming to the sideline and sending a low cross from the penalty area that none of his teammates could reach.
England substitute Djed Spence caught Nyland in possession towards the end of normal time, but it was inevitable that the second half would end goalless.
Three minutes into extra time, Morgan Rogers fired a long-range shot into the Norway goal that Orjan Nyland could only parry, and Bellingham stepped in to bury the rebound, delighting the 64,478 white-shirted fans.
England will face either Argentina or Switzerland in Atlanta on Wednesday in their fourth semi-final in the last five major championships, aiming to stay on course to repeat their only World Cup victory in 1966.
VAR would intervene once again after Bellingham’s second goal to rule out an extra-time penalty awarded to England for a foul on Eberechi Eze.
Unable to add to his tally of seven goals in the tournament, Haaland was sent off in extra time and although Norway surged forward to find an equaliser, England continued to reach the last four in the 1966, 1990 and 2018 World Cups.
AP, Reuters
