‘Knew exactly what he was doing’: Tottenham fans joke that Christian Eriksen is a ‘genius’ for playing ball off Bernardo Silva before it reached Sergio Aguero in offside position
- Sergio Aguero teed up Raheem Sterling for what looked like the winning goal
- But VAR helped rule out the injury time effort and Tottenham held on to win
- Christian Eriksen’s loose pass had allowed Aguero through on the Spurs goal
- But his pass clipped off Bernardo Silva and was therefore ruled offside
Christian Eriksen will have had his heart in his mouth after giving away possession for what appeared to be a winning goal for Manchester City on Wednesday night.
The Danish international attempted a back pass but it flicked off Bernardo Silva into the path of Sergio Aguero who fed Raheem Sterling to score.
After 68 seconds of celebration the goal was ruled out for offside and Eriksen’s blushes were spared.
Christian Eriksen was a relieved man after Tottenham were saved by an offside decision
The rules state that if the ball comes off one of the attacking players then offside is active.
If Eriksen’s pass had fallen straight into the path of Aguero untouched, then the goal would have been allowed to stand. The FA website says a player is offside if they are ‘interfering with play by playing or touching a ball passed or touched by a team-mate.’
Referee Cuneyt Cakir initially allowed the strike after his assistant kept the flag down but the decision was correctly overturned.
Raheem Sterling thought he’d scored the winner but the ball through came off Bernardo Silva
Spurs’ 4-4 win on away goals was confirmed and plenty of supporters took to social media, joking that Eriksen meant to flick the ball off Silva.
One wrote: ‘Don’t worry, Eriksen knew what he was doing’, and another added: ‘Christian Eriksen is a genius, knew exactly what he was doing playing it off Bernardo Silva to waste some time.’
A third user posted: ‘Absolute extraordinary level of genius from Eriksen to spot Aguero offside and play it off a City player to waste time and stop the goal from counting.’