The ‘clear’ Newcastle United view on Cristiano Ronaldo’s disallowed goal for Manchester United

Newcastle United head coach Eddie Howe says it is “clear” that Cristiano Ronaldo’s goal was correctly disallowed.

The Portuguese international gambled that Fabian Schar had taken a quick free-kick to Nick Pope and ran through to put the ball into an empty net.

Referee Craig Pawson was quick to rule out the goal, much to the anger of the Manchester United players, who surrounded the official.

“I don’t have a comment, everyone has seen it,” Red Devils boss Erik ten Hag said.

“As I said, I shared that with [the officials]. Everyone has seen what happened today on the pitch, so I don’t have a comment.”

While the Dutchman remained coy, Howe provided his view, and he was in no doubt over the incident.

“It was clear Fabby wasn’t taking the kick,” Howe said. “I don’t know if the ref had blown his whistle to restart play. I don’t think he had.

“For me, it was clear that Nick (Pope) was waiting to deliver the free-kick and Ronaldo has taken the ball off him.

“It would have been a very, very difficult goal to swallow had that stood. It was clear to me the ball wasn’t in play.”

Howe felt his side were denied a first-half penalty when Callum Wilson went to ground under a challenge from Raphael Varane.

Man United also had two penalty claims of their own on Jadon Sancho and Ronaldo waved away.

“It is difficult as I haven’t seen their ones,” Howe said. “I thought Dan Burn had his shirt ripped off his back from one ball.

“It was one of those games where there were strong shouts for both teams. And I think if he doesn’t give one, he can’t give the others, so probably fair.”