Netherlands coach Ronald Koeman on Friday said that his team had a goal wrongly ruled out in their 0-0 draw with France in Group D at the UEFA Euro 2024.
Xavi Simons thought he had scored in the 69th minute when he fired inside the right post from a rebound after France goalkeeper Mike Maignan saved Memphis Depay’s effort.
The linesman raised his flag and a lengthy video assistant referee (VAR) check found that Denzel Dumfries, who was offside, obstructed Maignan from attempting to save Xavi’s shot.
Photo: Reuters
“Dumfries is offside, that’s true, but he isn’t disturbing the goalkeeper,” Koeman said at the post-game news conference. “And when that is not happening, then it’s a legal goal in my opinion.”
“And you need five minutes to check it because it’s so difficult? I don’t understand this,” he added. “In my opinion, once again, he’s not disturbing the goalkeeper.”
France manager Didier Deschamps agreed with Koeman about the VAR check taking too long, but he felt Dumfries was clearly obstructing the goalkeeper.
“When I saw the images, I thought it was a no-brainer,” Deschamps said.
Their teams’ draw was the first goalless game at the tournament. It left the Netherlands on top of the group on 4 points due to a better goal-scoring record than France — who also moved to 4 points.
In another Group D game, Austria beat Poland 3-1. Austria are third in the group on 3 points, with all four teams having played two games, while Poland have had two losses.
Additional reporting by staff writer
The qualifying round of the World Baseball Classic (WBC) is to be held at the Taipei Dome between Feb. 21 and 25, Major League Baseball (MLB) announced today. Taiwan’s group also includes Spain, Nicaragua and South Africa, with two of the four teams advancing onto the 2026 WBC. Taiwan, currently ranked second in the world in the World Baseball Softball Confederation rankings, are favorites to come out of the group, the MLB said in an article announcing the matchups. Last year, Taiwan finished in a five-way tie in their group with two wins and two losses, but finished last on tiebreakers after giving
North Korea’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning team on Saturday received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital, Pyongyang, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 3. It was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world; they also lifted the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in September. Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the
For King Faisal, a 20-year-old winger from Ghana, the invitation to move to Brazil to play soccer “was a dream.” “I believed when I came here, it would help me change the life of my family and many other people,” he said in Sao Paulo. For the past year and a half, he has been playing on the under-20s squad for Sao Paulo FC, one of South America’s most prominent clubs. He and a small number of other Africans are tearing across pitches in a country known as the biggest producer and exporter of soccer stars in the world, from Pele to Neymar. For
Coco Gauff of the US on Friday defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to set up a showdown with Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the final of the WTA Finals, while in the doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching was eliminated. Gauff generated six break points to Belarusian Sabalenka’s four and built on early momentum in the opening set’s tiebreak that she carried through to the second set. She is the youngest player at 20 to make the final at the WTA Finals since Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. Zheng earlier defeated Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 to book
RSS