Why Man United goal vs Leicester City was allowed to stand amid offside controversy

Manchester United booked a place into the fifth round of the FA Cup in controversial circumstances after a 2-1 win over Leicester City.

The Foxes scored the opening goal through Bobby De Cordova-Reid on the brink of half-time before Joshua Zirkzee had an instant impact off the bench. The Dutch striker only needed four minutes to score after replacing Kobbie Mainoo.

Harry Maguire then completed the second-half comeback with a goal in stoppage time. However, the imposing central defender appeared to be in an offside position when the free-kick was taken.

But the goal was allowed to stand with video assistant referee not in use for the third and fourth round of the FA Cup regardless of the location and teams competing. As a result, it could not intervene and so the goal was allowed to stand.

Former United interim boss Ruud van Nistelrooy was left furious at the outcome and believes it was an easy decision. "We are not defeated in Fergie time, we are defeated in offside time," he told ITV.

"This wasn't necessary. VAR you have in a couple centimetres, a couple of inches, this was half a metre, clear in line. That was a hard one to take because the team deserves to draw in the end. Then extra time, stay in the game you, never know what happens. It was a very good team performance, started really well, pressing United. On the ball very stable.

"Deserved to go 1-0 up at half-time. Of course we know in the second half they're going to put some pressure on us and some chances but not even that much. We deserved to go into extra time, go for the battle in extra time and maybe penalties. Decisions like these in our level are hard to swallow."

United head coach Ruben Amorim meanwhile, also dismissed the notion of 'Fergie-time'