Manchester United were furious after conceding ‘offside’ goal against CSKA Moscow – but here is why it stood

MANCHESTER UNITED were confused and angered as CSKA Moscow took a shock lead at Old Trafford in bizarre circumstances.

To everyone inside the stadium, Vitinho's shot, deflected off Alan Dzagoev appeared to be a blatant offside, just seconds before the half time whistle.

But things were soon clear as replays showed the linesman was pointing at Daley Blind, who had slid beyond the goal line and become the second defender to play Dzagoev, 27, onside.

That meant the offisde line effectively became level with keeper Sergio Romero.

The FA has an interpretation of the offisde law.

It says: "A defending player who leaves the field of play without the referee's permission shall be considered to be on the goal line or touchline for the purposes of offside until the next stoppage in play or until the defending team has played the ball towards the halfway line and it is outside their penalty area. "It the player left the field deliberately, the player must be cautioned when the ball is next out of play."

Of course there was no suggestion Blind left the field of play deliberately, so no yellow card. But as of full-time, the goal has been awarded to the Brazilian, suggesting his effort may have actually been on target all along.

United manager Jose Mourinho said: "Yeah the first impression was offside but then no, and a good thing was that in the second half they showed the desire of not qualifying with a defeat.

"We could lose four or five nil and quality but that was not the objective, the objective was to qualify well and try to have a result and we managed both things."

From The Sun