Controversy over Lukaku's goal

Romelu Lukaku put Belgium ahead against Russia in a controversial move. A Mertens cross into the Russia area hit a defender and enabled Lukaku who was offside. Neither Mateu Lahoz, referee of the clash, nor Hernández Hernández, VAR referee, detected anything punishable.

In order to Iturralde González, arbitration analyst at AS and SER, defended that according to the regulations the goal had to have been annulled for offside by the Belgian striker. “The first goal comes in a play by and for referee school. It's a play for debate but it seems more like a knee-jerk move than a punt. The offside is an instinctive gesture, at no time a deliberate gesture and the rule says to play deliberately. Here the defense of Russia plays it deliberately? It is the debate. For me it is not a bad clearance, so in my opinion it is offside, but it is still very debatable “.

The Spanish referee and his assistants interpreted that the action is a bad clearance and then Lukaku's illegal position would be enabled by the arrival of the ball from a Russian footballer. The goal went up to the scoreboard.