11.7mm from glory: now Liverpool must brush off narrow defeat | Jonathan Wilson
Jürgen Klopp’s side may have seen their lead over Manchester City cut to four points after a miraculous goalline clearance but they must recover quickly to end title drought
The world moves on. Technology develops and evolves. The aesthetics of the spectacle, perhaps, to our wearily nostalgic culture, have less to recommend them than they did, but accuracy at least is guaranteed. Where once epoch-defining line decisions were taken by Azerbaijani men with silver hair and splendid moustaches, now we watch a digital representation of a yellow circle landing on a white line across a green background. What Tofiq Bahramov’s decisive nod was to the 1966 World Cup, so the Goal Decision System may be to the 2018‑19 Premier League.
Where the former remains contested (with good reason), there is no disputing what happened at the Etihad on Thursday. Or at least not beyond crazed conspiracists who within hours of the final whistle were already talking about shadows and angles and the grand anti-Liverpudlian plot that is geometry. Perhaps the technology is not perfect. Perhaps the reading that said the ball was 11.7 millimetres from completely crossing the line is affecting an impossible level of accuracy, but it is still much more likely to be right than a 41-year‑old former footballer from Baku.