UEFA President, Michel Platini, has been insistent on staying away from goal line technology and instant replay, and instead has elected to use extra officials near the goal line. During the England-Ukraine match, it was apparent that having the extra goal line official is not enough and some sort of replay is needed.
With Ukraine trailing 1-0 in the 62nd minute, Marko Devic took a shot that got by England’s goaltender but was booted out by John Terry from inside the net. From the replay it appears that the entire ball crossed the line and should have been a goal. However, the goal line official ruled that the goal did not completely cross the line.
GIF via sbnation
Since UEFA has not adopted goal line technology, the ball could not be reviewed to see if it had crossed the line. Ukraine’s head coach, Oleg Blokhin, was upset after the game:
“We scored a clean goal in the 63rd minute as the ball crossed the goal line by over a metre. We had rotten luck tonight because the ball was not willing to go into the goal and England were lucky to score. What can I say? There are five refs on the pitch and the ball was… over the line. Why do we need five refs then? Devic scored a goal and I don’t know why it wasn’t allowed.”
According to Grant Wahl‘s twitter accounts, Blokhin was also ready to go toe to toe with a journalist during a post-match interview.
Needing a win to advance, Ukraine ended up finishing third in Group D, behind England and France. Unfortunately for Euro 2012 and Ukraine, this blown call is going to overshadow a lot of great moments from the tournament. That goal should have counted, so you can understand Blokhin’s response.
