Bas Nijhuis admits that AZ’s opening goal in the won away match against NEC (1-3) should have been rejected. Jesper Karlsson took the ball with his arm into the box after a long ball from Aslak Fonn Witry, before hitting the ball into the right corner. Nijhuis was not corrected by his video referee Marc Nagtegaal and therefore approved the goal.
For Nijhuis it was not clear on the field that Karlsson was making hands. The attacker took the ball with his chest, but then also hit it with his hand. “I look from the inside, so I see the ball go on the chest; I don’t see the arm. From other camera images I now see that his arm is also there. The ball bounces off the chest. It is now clear to me to see that the ball does hit the arm”, the referee admits in front of the camera of ESPN† The rule is clear: if a handball leads directly to a goal, the goal must be disallowed. “Certainly. That should have happened here too.”
“The VAR looks at images from all kinds of camera positions. The first two images I saw were clear, but the third and fourth made it a bit unclear. Maybe the VAR was a little more focused on that, but to me this is a clear handball Nijhuis concludes. For NEC it is little consolation. “Maybe I shouldn’t say it, but how they get that first goal… It’s unprecedented, isn’t it?!”, Lasse Schöne grumbled. “It is so obviously hands-on. It is really incomprehensible. I think they (the referees, ed.) have studied for it, but I find it incomprehensible, really incomprehensible.”
At the time, Schöne was already thinking about hands; during the intermission he saw the images that confirmed his suspicions. “Guys, come on. Everyone sees that it is hands-on. Anyone who does not think so, understands nothing about football. It is really unbelievable.” Karlsson himself also admits that he touched the ball with his hand. “The ball first came against my shoulder and then indeed against my hand,” said the attacker, who nevertheless did not think of telling Nijhuis the truth. “No, not because of the adrenaline that goes through you at such a moment. Besides, I don’t know exactly how the rules are. At least I hit it with my shoulder first. And apparently the VAR couldn’t do it either. see well.”