Norway players past and present were left furious following their World Cup quarter-final defeat against England.
The Three Lions roared into the final after eventually prevailing in extra-time courtesy of Jude Bellingham’s opportunistic winner.
Norway had taken the lead in the 36th minute when Andreas Schjelderup’s miscued cross was misjudged by Jordan Pickford but the lead lasted last than 10 minutes.
There appeared to be little wrong with Bellingham’s superb finish which capped a fine flowing move that involved Elliot Anderson and Anthony Gordon.
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Subsequent replays, however, appeared to show the ball hit one of the stadium wires from which the Miami Stadium’s spidercam is suspended from.
FIFA subsequently claimed their technology did not detect contact that would have seen the goal ruled out, but former Norway international Erik Mykland, who represented his country at the 1998 World Cup, was livid.
‘It’s a complete scandal,’ the one-time Panathinaikos midfielder told Norwegian outlet Dagbladet.
‘It’s ironic that the technology that’s supposed to help us is destroying us.’
Further frustration followed for Norway 10 minutes into the second half when Torbjorn Lysaker Heggem’s goal was ruled out after VAR had adjudged that Anderson had been pushed by Erling Haaland before a corner kick had been taken.
After enjoying several strokes of luck, England will now play either Argentina or Switzerland in the semi finals but head coach Thomas Tuchel acknowledged a far better display will be required.
What should happen if the ball hits spider cam?
IFAB’s Law 8 clarifies that the ball is dropped for the team that would have retained/gained possession had play not been stopped, which includes the team that would have taken the restart in situations where the ball would have gone out of play.
If play is stopped because the ball makes contact with: a match official (e.g. the referee) or an outside agent.
The ball is dropped where the interference/contact occurred.
‘We made life very, very difficult for ourselves today,’ he said. ‘The result is fantastic. We are in the last four. It’s amazing but not happy with the performance. – in every sense.
‘The commitment is there but we made life difficult for is in the way we played and how we played – sloppy, a lot of technical mistakes, not fast enough, not repetitive enough. We were lucky today.
‘It’s not the mentality. This is pure mentality. It’s not about mentality. You can bottle it up and sell it. It’s about the quality – we need to play better.’