#5 Helguera and Morientes’ disallowed goals for Spain in the 2002 World Cup
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Arguably the most questionable result in any modern game, the 2002 World Cup quarter-final saw host nation South Korea upset Spain via a penalty shoot-out to reach the semis. Realistically though it should never have happened.
Firstly Ivan Helguera headed in during the first half, only for the referee to disallow the goal due to apparent shirt pulling in the box. The decision was questionable at best – reminiscent of the Campbell incident in the previous World Cup – but worse was yet to come.
As the game headed into extra time – still under Golden Goal rules – Spain thought they’d won it again as Fernando Morientes headed in from close range, only for the referee to again disallow the goal. The reason this time? Apparently the ball had gone out of play before Joaquin fired in the cross. Only the replays confirmed it hadn’t. Spain were unable to get the crucial goal and ended up losing the penalty shoot-out to the hosts.
Was this match fixing? Or was it just an example of a really incompetent referee? We’ll never know, but video technology would’ve changed the result for certain and may have handed Spain their first World Cup eight years early.
