Why wasn’t Dean Henderson sent off in FA Cup final? Controversial handball decision slammed as ‘pathetic’

The England goalkeeper was the main protagonist of Saturday’s eventful opening period at Wembley, making a string of fine saves to keep Pep Guardiola’s favourites at bay.

City were initially dominant in the showpiece fixture, but could not find a way past the inspired Henderson, who saved Omar Marmoush’s penalty awarded for Tyrick Mitchell’s foul on Bernardo Silva and also denied Erling Haaland on the follow-up after Eberechi Eze had earlier slotted home from Daniel Munoz’s cross.

However, most City fans will feel that Henderson should never have been on the pitch in the first place to make those stops after avoiding a red card with only 23 minutes on the clock.

The former Manchester United ‘keeper came racing out of his area to try and avert the danger after Josko Gvardiol tried to pick out the run of Haaland with a long pass forward from defence, retreating his feet just back inside the box but then reaching out of it to swipe away the ball.

City demanded action by referee Stuart Attwell and the incident was subject to a VAR review from Jarred Gillett, assisted by Darren Cann.

It looked likely that Henderson would receive his marching orders for deliberate handball in a major early blow for Palace and their hopes of winning a first-ever major trophy in their third FA Cup final appearance, only to be handed a surprise reprieve following the VAR review.

Presenting the BBC’s final coverage, Gary Lineker said at half-time that they had been in touch with the VAR team and it was explained that the direction in which Haaland was travelling made it a possible but not obvious goalscoring opportunity, thus sparing Henderson red.

However, many were quick to point out that it seemed that it was only Henderson’s illegal intervention that forced the direction of play away from goal, otherwise Haaland looked likely to tap the ball around the goalkeeper and surely score.

General direction of the play is among the key considerations for officials when deciding if an action has denied an obvious goalscoring opportunity, as well as distance between the offence and the goal, likelihood of keeping or gaining control of the ball and location and number of defenders.