Fans confused as Ecuador goal ruled out against Qatar minutes into World Cup opener

Viewers and commentators alike were left confused as Ecuador had a goal disallowed by VAR minutes into the opening game of the World Cup.

The South American side took on Qatar in Sunday's opening game and looked to have taken the lead in the third minute when former West Ham forward Enner Valencia found the back of the net.

But VAR ruled that there was an offside in the build-up, although this wasn't announced until some minutes later, causing huge confusion as to what the reason was for the goal being disallowed.

READ MORE: Qatar v Ecuador LIVE updates

George Hamilton and Ronnie Whelan couldn't work out what the reason was and sounded very confused on commentary duty for RTE.

Hamilton said: "The whole World Cup build-up was shrouded in controversy, I think the opening minutes of the actual competition have now drawn their own controversy."

Whelan added: "Hopefully we're wrong. Maybe there was something there but up to now we haven't seen it."

Fans were similarly confused, with one tweeting: "Who would have thought? Poor Ecuador just had a clear goal ruled out for absolutely no reason in the 5th minute against Qatar."

Another person said: "How’s that Ecuador goal offside?"

Someone else commented: "Ecuador disallowed goal becomes the most controversial decision of the 2022 WC."

One other post read: "World cup 2022 controversy since Ecuador early goal disallowed."

And even when the replay and VAR image was shown, fans still couldn't believe a player was offside.

However, some 12 minutes later Ecuador took the lead through a penalty when Valencia calmly slotted the ball past Saad Al Sheeb in the Qatar goal.

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