Ruud van Nistelrooy rages at 'offside' Man Utd winner - Ruben Amorim agrees | OneFootball

Leicester City manager Ruud van Nistelrooy took aim at the FA Cup officials after his side were beaten by a controversial stoppage-time winner from Manchester United's Harry Maguire on Friday night.

Van Nistelrooy's United counterpart Ruben Amorim could do little more than agree with the furious Dutchman.

The Foxes took a first-half lead in their fourth-round tie at Old Trafford. Joshua Zirkzee equalised after the break and the score was level at 1-1 as the game ticked into the third and final minute of added time. Maguire thumped Bruno Fernandes' swerving free kick into the bottom corner to snatch a late - and not entirely deserved - victory for the hosts, but replays showed that the centre-back had strayed offside.

As VAR will not be introduced into the world's oldest cup competition until the fifth round, the incorrect on-field decision stood - much to the fury of Van Nistelrooy.

"We were not defeated in Fergie time," the former United striker huffed to ITV Sport, referring to the last few minutes of a match which produced so many late winners under Sir Alex Ferguson. "We were defeated in 'offside time'. This wasn't necessary.

"VAR you have for [an offside that is] a couple of centimetres, inches. This was half a metre, clear and in line. It's a hard one to take because the team deserved the draw.

"With extra time, if you stay in the game, you never know what happens. It was a really good team performance. We started really well, pressing United, on the ball very stable. We deserved to go 1-0 up at half-time.

"Of course, we knew that there would be some pressure on us in the second half and some chances, but not even that much. So we deserved to go into extra time and go into the battle for extra time and maybe penalties. So decisions like this, at our level, are hard to swallow."

Unprompted by the BBC interviewer in his own post-match media duties, Amorim admitted: "The goal was offside. We should have VAR. VAR should be here to overturn the decision. This is hard on the opponent, this is hard on Ruud."

United failed to attempt a single shot on target in a toothless first half. The introduction of Alejandro Garnacho during the interval sparked some form of fightback but Amorim conceded that his side was "poor" and "need to improve".