Leeds United and Aston Villa could yet meet in the playoff finals after a chaotic Championship encounter.
Sky Sports pundit Paul Robinson has pointed out that Mateusz Klich was actually offside when he scored his controversial goal during the heated 1-1 draw against Aston Villa on Sunday at Elland Road.
In one of the most dramatic moments & games of the season, Klich opened the scoring for the home side after 72 minutes despite the away team thinking that the game had been stopped for the injured Villa striker Jonathan Kodjia.
When the ball was played out wide to Tyler Roberts, for a split second it seemed as though he was going to kick the ball out of play, but he then decided to play the ball through to Klich, who went on to score to the fury of the home team.
Amid all the chaos and arguments, speaking to Sky Sports Football (28/04/2019), former England goalkeeper Robinson seemingly spotted something that went unnoticed during all the drama and that was that Klich was seemingly offside.
“Villa are looking for a foul here,” Robinson told Sky Sports Football. “When you see it in the replay, I don’t think it is a foul [on Kodjia]. And then they [Leeds] are in a real predicament here. He [Roberts] looks as though he’s going to put it out and then he sees the balls on. I think the linesman gets it wrong because I actually think he’s offside [Klich].
“Morally, yes I think they should put it out. There’s nothing in the rule book that states you have to put the ball out. The manager has made that decision and credit to the manager. Very, very sporting way. He’s realised Villa’s done the same for them and returned the favour if you like.
“The reaction of the Villa players and the Leeds players. Everyone knew there was a problem straight away. Simply because Villa had put it out [before] and the way all the game stopped around him.”
Moments after that Klich goal went in, Villa midfielder Conor Hourihane grabbed the Leeds player by the neck with his teammates surrounding him clearly angry with what had just happened.
For five or more minutes, pockets of melees ensued both on the pitch and on the touchline where all the staff and substitutes were.
Eventually, Leeds boss Bielsa sportingly decided to allow Villa to walk the ball into the back of the net, with defender Pontus Jansson unwilling for that to happen and trying to stop Albert Adomah scoring what was the equaliser.
The pushing and shoving continued after that with Jansson clearly unimpressed with the fact that his team allowed the opposition to score a goal unopposed.
In the end, the game finished in a 1-1 draw in what was one of the most dramatic games of football seen in the second tier of English football for many a year.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
