Disallowed Goal E Eze Brentford 1 – 0 Crystal Palace At half-time: Did the referee blow too early?

Crystal Palace are denied the opening goal at Brentford when Eze’s brilliant free-kick is ruled out for a foul in the box. Did the referee blow his whistle too early?

Crystal Palace star Eberechi Eze has been denied one of the goals of the season in the Premier League’s opening weekend after his incredible free kick was controversially ruled out by referee Samuel Barrot. The Eagles were looking to get off to the perfect start away at the Gtech Community Stadium against Brentford when the England international stepped up to the set piece for what would seemingly be an opportunity to whip in a cross for a teammate.

Instead, Eze caught Mark Flekken asleep and found a gap in the far corner to give what he thought was his side a valuable league. However, an incident inside the penalty box saw the goal disallowed.

As Eze stepped up to the dead ball, some jostling could be seen taking place inside the penalty area, which led to Brentford star Nathan Collins tumbling to the floor after a collision with Will Hughes. This was enough for Barrot to blow his whistle and penalise the Eagles midfielder as the ball was heading goalwards.

While many called for a VAR check to be implemented due to the perceived soft contact, it was confirmed by the new Premier League Match Centre X account that because the referee had already blown his whistle before the ball had crossed the line, VAR could not get involved in overturning the decision and awarding a goal as play had already been stopped.

To make matters worse for Palace, the hosts took the lead just moments later when Bryan Mbuemo was set free by Yoanne Wissa before cutting inside and cooly finding the bottom corner inside the 18-yard-box.

At half-time, former Liverpool midfielder Jamie Redknapp labeled the incident as ‘a monumental mistake’ from the officials, claiming that the whistle was blown too early and took away from a moment of genius by Eze. Micah Richards shared a similar sentiment, going as far as to say that the foul was actually by Collins on Hughes.