Carabao Cup final: Why Virgil van Dijk goal was disallowed for offside in Chelsea vs Liverpool

Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk saw his goal against Chelsea in the Carabao Cup final controversially ruled out for offside.

The defender held off Ben Chilwell to thump home what he thought was the opening goal in a tense clash at Wembley Stadium.

But after a long wait for a Video Assistant Referee (VAR) check, the goal was ruled out for a “technical offside.”

Van Dijk was not offside, so why was it ruled out?

Replays showed that Wataru Endo was in an offside position when the free kick was sent in and as he blocked Levi Colwill from marking Van Dijk, the goal was disallowed.

Both Colwill and Chilwell were tasked with marking Van Dijk, who scored in his last Liverpool game and has three goals to his name this season.

It is up for debate if Colwill even would have been able to prevent Van Dijk from scoring but Endo was deemed to be interfering with play so the goal had to be chalked off.

Standard Sport’s chief football reporter Dan Kilpatrick reported on the incident from Wembley: “That feels like another big VAR decision which has set a precedent that will be impossible to uphold in future.

“Those kind of blocks happen at every set piece at this level. Are they all really going to be policed in the same way from now on?”