Romelu Lukaku put Belgium ahead against Russia in a controversial move.
A Mertens cross into the Russia area hit a defender and enabled Lukaku who was offside.
Neither Mateu Lahoz, referee of the clash, nor Hernández Hernández, VAR referee, detected anything punishable.
For
Iturralde González, referee analyst for AS and SER
, he defended that according to the regulations the goal had to have been annulled because the Belgian striker was offside. "The first goal comes in a play by and for the referee school. It is a play for debate but it seems more an instinctive movement than a clearance.
The offside is an instinctive gesture, at no time a deliberate gesture and the rule says playing deliberately.
Is the Russian defender playing it deliberately here? It's the debate. For me it's not a bad clearance, so in my opinion it's offside,
but it's still highly debatable
.
"
The Spanish referee and his assistants interpreted that the action is a bad clearance and then
Lukaku's illegal position would be enabled by the arrival of the ball from a Russian footballer
. The goal went up to the scoreboard.