[Offside / VAR Intervention] Was the defending player's touch deliberate play?

The question is whether the defending player's touch, just before the player in an offside position scored, was "deliberate play". There are two points to note. ① At what moment is offside judged? After the cross from the left, a Juventus player touched the ball in the centre. Whether a player is in an offside position is judged at the moment this team-mate touches the ball. The player who was in an offside position at that moment went on to score, so this could be an offside offence. For the assistant referee, the ball was touched after the cross, which made the offside extremely difficult to judge. ② Was the defending player's touch "deliberate play"? After the Juventus player's touch, the ball struck a defending player. If this defending player is judged to have deliberately played the ball, there is no offside offence and the goal stands. If instead the ball is judged to have simply struck the player, or the touch is judged to be a save, it is an offside offence. This judgement depends largely on the referee's own assessment, and the OFR was carried out to check it. The referee judged that the defending player's touch was not deliberate play and gave offside. The Laws of the Game set out the indicators for "deliberately played" as follows. ====== The following criteria should be used, as appropriate, as indicators that a player was in control of the ball and, as a result, can be considered to have ‘deliberately played’ the ball: ◦ The ball travelled from distance and the player had a clear view of it ◦ The ball was not moving quickly ◦ The direction of the ball was not unexpected ◦ The player had time to coordinate their body movement, i.e. it was not a case of instinctive stretching or jumping, or a movement that achieved limited contact/control ◦ A ball moving on the ground is easier to play than a ball in the air A ‘save’ is when a player stops, or attempts to stop, a ball which is going into or very close to the goal with any part of the body except the hands/arms (unless the goalkeeper within the penalty area). ====== The replay shows that the defending player reacted to the ball. However, the ball came from close range, and the movement is hard to describe as an attempt to do something with the ball. The referee's decision after the OFR, that this was not deliberate play and therefore offside, can be considered reasonable. That said, this was an extremely difficult incident for the human eye to judge in an instant.