I’m usually a staunch defender of VAR but even I didn’t have a clue what was happening there.

From what the pundits showed later, by the letter of the law it was offside but it was so vague at the time it really did look like they’d tried to spare Qatar’s blushes.

Pathetic how empty the stadium was while the match was still going.

Watching Qatar I did remember a colleague of mine I meet about 8 years ago (would have been in his early 20s then, about 30 now) although English was actually born in Qatar as his Dad was working in the oil industry over there at the time.
Maybe he should have looked into getting picked for their team.

I guess I don't understand the offside rule after all.

It looks like Catar's fans were leaving the stadium because their squad was losing by 2-0.

On other news, Ecuador fans were complaining about the prohibition of alcoholic drinks at the stadium.

There's a little thing about it I didn't know for the longest time, that a player has to be behind two opposition players to be onside. We don't ever think about it that way because 99% of the time one of those two players is the goalkeeper, but in situations like today it can happen that a player is behind a defender and still off because the goalie came up for the ball.

Even then, there's a lot about that goal that's confusing as to why it was offside, but after watching it a few times and paying good attention to what's going on, I realized the VAR actually made the right call. Cross comes in, guy heads the ball into the air, it bounces, and then the other guy comes and heads it - this second player was offside when the other one headed it earlier. In all truth, the way they showed the replay, with that silly looking 3D and all, only made it more confusing, because the most important thing here was to understand the context of the offside, rather than the lines themselves.

Delighted to see Qatar lose the opening match. Fuck Qatar and fuck Infantino who really deserves a punch in the face!

That was my impression as well, especially because I was already speculating before the game how much this World Cup could be rigged to make Qatar look good. While the offside was the correct call, I am not looking forward to more of that pathetic 3D. (On a sidenote, this is the second WC after 2010 where this particular offside situation was ruled in the opening match; back then Mexico scored in that manner against South Africa and the call was offside.)

As for the rest of the game, Ecuador was better as could be expected. Qatar didn't have a scoring chance in the first half. I am not sure if Ecuador was just tired in the second half or was urged to let Qatar participate while still being allowed to earn their first win in the tournament.

Refreshing to finally watch a well played game between two strong teams.

Such a shame about Mané's injury though. He's a hero. Feel like Senegal would be winning this with him.

The refereeing at this World Cup has been an absolute shambles, what the fuck is FIFA smoking with these guidelines