Eric Smith’s goal for St. Pauli against Borussia Dortmund shouldn’t have counted, according to Gregor Kobel, Sebastian Kehl and Nuri Sahin.
Borussia Dortmund players were furious after Eric Smith equalized in the second half of Friday’s Bundesliga match at Signal Iduna Park.
Although Dortmund eventually won the game 2-1, Gregor Kobel was still visibly angry at the decision to allow Smith’s goal in a post-match interview. He felt it should have been disallowed, arguing that Oladapo Afolayan had blocked his view in an offside position.
“It was clearly offside, there can’t be two opinions about that,” Kobel fumed in an interview with DAZN.
“It’s a prime example of why this rule exists. It was a nice shot, but you can see exactly how he ducks, how he obstructs me. So he clearly has to be offside.”
Dortmund sporting director Sebastian Kehl paid referee Matthias Jöllenbeck a visit in the dressing room after the game.
“I’ve already been to the referee and told him my opinion, we had a heated discussion,” he said.
For BVB coach Nuri Sahin, it was a “clear offside” as well, but he wasn’t as frustrated as Kobel and Kehl.
“Now that we’ve won, I can talk about it in a relaxed way,” he said.
Referee Jöllenbeck defended his decision as follows:
“In such cases, the goalkeeper’s view must be clearly obstructed. That was not the case here.”
St. Pauli had a goal disallowed for offside in the first half after a VAR review.
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