{"id":1178456,"date":"2026-08-31T05:05:45","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T05:05:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1178456\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T05:05:45","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T05:05:45","slug":"why-was-man-utds-goal-against-ipswich-not-disallowed-after-harry-maguires-handball-before-deflected-shot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1178456\/","title":{"rendered":"Why was Man Utd\u2019s goal against Ipswich not disallowed after Harry Maguire\u2019s handball before deflected shot?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Harry Maguire<\/a> played a big part in Manchester United<\/a>\u2019s second goal in their 5-2 win against Ipswich Town in the Premier League with controversy surrounding a VAR review.<\/p>\n

The United defender handled the ball in the build-up before gathering the ball and striking at goal. <\/p>\n

His effort was not going on target and instead deflected off Jacob Graves to hand the hosts the lead at Old Trafford, before Bruno Fernandes struck twice more to send the Red Devils clear at 4-1. <\/p>\n

But United\u2019s second sparked widespread debate, mainly due to the hosts\u2019 good fortune that Maguire didn\u2019t convert the chance himself.<\/p>\n

The VAR reviewed the incident, but due to the fact that Maguire\u2019s benefit did not directly result in the goal, with his shot deflecting off Graves, the goal was allowed to stand. <\/p>\n

“It wasn’t handball on purpose,\u201d Maguire told Sky Sports. \u201cThat [it being an own-goal] is why it counted, if it was my goal, it’d have been disallowed, luckily we were on the right side and I think we deserved a bit of luck.”<\/p>\n

Darren Bent reacted: “He’s going to say it’s accidental, almost trying to protect himself, I understand the rules, but it directly impacts the goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gary Neville admitted the rule would need to be looked at after discovering the reason for the goal standing.<\/p>\n

The Premier League match centre responded to the controversial incident: \u201cThe referee\u2019s call of goal for Manchester United was checked and confirmed by VAR \u2013 with it deemed that Maguire was not the immediate goalscorer after an accidental handball.<\/p>\n

\"ManchesterManchester United’s Harry Maguire celebrates after Ipswich Town’s Jacob Greaves scores an own goal (PA)\"HarryHarry Maguire’s deflected shot was controversially awarded as a Jacob Greaves own goal despite a potential handball in the build-up (Getty)\"ManchesterManchester United’s Harry Maguire celebrates their second goal (Reuters)<\/p>\n

VAR added: \u201cIt\u2019s an own goal and the accidental handball is not punishable, so we recommend you award the goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rule\u2019s definition reads that the \u201cIt is an offence if a player scores in the opponents\u2019 goal:<\/p>\n

\u201c-Directly from their hand\/arm, even if accidental, including by the goalkeeper<\/p>\n

\u201c-Immediately after the ball has touched their hand\/arm, even if accidental.\u201d<\/p>\n

But mitigating factors include: <\/p>\n

\u201c-Goal not immediate<\/p>\n

\u201c-Goal scored by a teammate<\/p>\n

\u201c-Ball not entering goal; however action of a defender <\/p>\n

results in an \u2018own goal\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Some debate will surround the wording \u201caccidental handball,\u201d with the handball crucial to Maguire gaining possession.<\/p>\n

After Fernandes completed his hat-trick, Bryan Mbeumo added a fifth to help United on their way to their first points of the 2026\/27 season. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1178457,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[17943,13,12,14,17944],"class_list":["post-1178456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-bestof","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topix"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117188385489988947","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1178456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1178456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1178456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1178457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1178456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1178456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1178456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}