Soccer Extreme : The ease of Manchester United’s win over Premier League title rivals Chelsea masked a potential moment of controversy after an “innovative” corner routine involving Wayne Rooney, Ryan Giggs and Cristiano Ronaldo produced a goal, with the scores still level, that was disallowed under instruction from the linesman.United manager Sir Alex Ferguson expressed astonishment that the effort, converted by Ronaldo, did not stand, admitting the routine had been planned on the training ground.
Rooney casually rolled the ball out of the corner quadrant and jogged away as if to leave the duties to Giggs. However, when the Welshman reached the ball, which was now live, he turned and headed for goal, with Chelsea’s defence unprepared, before squaring to Ronaldo to finish.
Corner shock:Ryan Giggs and Wayne Rooney seeks answers as to why
Cristiano Ronaldo's goal against Chelsea was disallowed
The incident was largely forgotten after the retaken corner found Nemanja Vidic who headed United in front, but the incident opened a debate as to why the original ‘goal’ had not been allowed to stand.
The official reason given by the linesman was that Rooney had not informed him as to his intentions, but Ferguson questioned whether this was in fact necessary.
“I don’t know if you saw the corner but we had planned that. We actually planned it,” said Ferguson.
When asked if Rooney needed to make clear to the assistant what he was planning, Ferguson said: “I don’t think that, I don’t think he needs to, but anyway, it’s a good result.”
Giggs was also unclear as to what infringement had been committed, but confirmed the linesman’s stated concern.
“I don’t think the linesman knew Wayne had taken a short one,” said Giggs. “I don’t know if Wayne had told him.
“I just jogged past Wayne and he said he’d took it, so it was clearly outside the D so I just ran across and took it. But luckily we scored just after that.
“Obviously we would have been annoyed if we hadn’t scored straight after it, but obviously it’s good to score the goal at any time.”
Dermot Gallagher, the former Premier League referee, backed up Ferguson’s assertion that the goal should have stood, describing the corner routine as “creative and innovative.”