VAR Review: Why Simons' goal for Netherlands was offside - ESPN

We're analysing every VAR decision made throughout all 51 games at Euro 2024. On Friday, Netherlands thought they had scored against France only for the goal to be disallowed for offside. What happened?

After each game, we take a look at the major incidents to examine and explain the process in terms of VAR protocol and the laws of the game.

What happened: Xavi Simons scored what he thought was the opening goal for Netherlands in the 69th minute. However, while the players were celebrating referee Anthony Taylor was discussing the goal with his assistant, and it was disallowed for offside.

VAR decision: No goal.

VAR review: This all comes down to the nuances of the offside law and when a player in an offside position is interfering with an opponent.

Simons struck a first-time shot which arrowed into the bottom right-hand corner of the goal. All good so far.

However, Denzel Dumfries was stood in an offside position between goalkeeper Mike Maignan and the path of the ball.

Would Maignan have saved the shot? That's not a consideration for the officials; there's no decision about a keeper's ability. What the officials have to ask themselves is whether Dumfries had an impact on Maignan, and if that affected his decision not to make a dive to attempt the save. Would the keeper have had to dive through the Dutch player to get to the ball? It's without doubt a fair assessment considering Dumfries' position.

It was quite an easy call to rule out the goal. So the truly controversial part is why it took the VAR, Stuart Attwell, and his assistants from Germany and Switzerland so long to support the on-field decision: 2 minutes and 47 seconds after Taylor blew his whistle for the offside. It is the longest VAR review of the