“Luckily it wasn’t the qualifying match”: Coman’s forgotten goal causes a lot of talk

2023-11-22 10:49:39

He too remained incredulous, circumspect in the face of an image that he considered to be frighteningly clear. Like most members of the French team, Philippe Diallo left the OPAP Arena with a smile on his face on Tuesday around 1 a.m. A smile provoked by the image that the president of the FFF, like all those who had the photo in front of them, enlarged as much as possible to see the obvious: “the ball crossed the line, right? » asked Diallo in a question that didn’t really expect an answer.

We are playing the 90th minute of the match against Greece when Kingsley Coman’s blocked cross hits the near post, crosses the line and comes out hitting the far post. Without video assistance, the German referee Daniel Siebert did not award the goal to the Munich player even though this action could have offered victory to Didier Deschamps’ men this Tuesday in Greece (2-2). Enough to anger Antoine Griezmann at the microphone of TF1: “He missed the goal-line technology, right? UEFA has a lot of money, but not enough to visibly put everything in place,” regretted the vice-captain of the Blues. It is true that if everything had been decided in Athens for the qualification, the scandal would have grown.

“Inconsistent with high-level practice”

“I just saw the photo. It’s not possible for things like this to happen. Fortunately it was not a match that counted for qualification,” Lucas Hernandez in turn engaged in the mixed zone. At the same time, Didier Deschamps adopted the same tone as his players a little further on in the press conference.

“What I regret is that at international level, we have a field that does not have goal-line technology. This is inconsistent with high-level practice. It has no impact, except that it was one more match won and there would have been what goes with it, the full card and the certainty of first place in the FIFA rankings,” commented DD, also taking care to remind us that “it’s not VAR that makes us concede two goals”. “We let them come back,” he said. It’s a surprising gaming incident to say the least, but I’m not upset. » Qualification and seeded status having already been acquired at kick-off, there was no question for the Blues of making a protest, it seems, at the end of the match.

This is not the first time that this type of situation has caused controversy during a qualifying match. In March 2021, Portugal also felt cheated in a match against Serbia counting for the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, when a goal was denied to Cristiano Ronaldo when he crossed the line.

Not obligatory in Euro qualifiers

At the time, UEFA gave its explanations for the absence of “hawk-eye” technology (Editor’s note: goal-line technology is the system used in L1): “The decision to use goal-line technology goal for European qualifying belongs to the host association of each match. If the host association plans to implement the technology on the goal line, it must also obtain written consent from the visiting association to use it. » It is difficult to imagine that the FFF could have refused such aid if its Greek counterpart had asked for its agreement.

As a reminder, this system is not compulsory during qualifying, but will be during the Euro in Germany next summer (as indicated in article 38.05 of the competition regulations). The Opap Arena, where the meeting took place, was, in any case, equipped for it. It hosts the matches of AEK Athens, involved in the Europa League, a competition where goal line technology is compulsory (article 36.05 of the competition regulations).