Score a goal from a throw-in

Can you score a goal from a throw-in? That was the question this weekend. 

Goalkeeper was not alert when his team-mate throw him the ball. But did he touch it? And what if: how do you restart play as referee?

A great video example to learn from in this case study.

LOTG: can’t score a goal from a throw-in

The Laws of the Game are very clear on this. “A goal cannot be scored directly from a throw-in”. Do you know the correct restarts when it happens? Think about this, you’ll get the answers below.

But first the reaction of the goalkeeper on the German Sky channel. “I was very surprised myself”, he admits. Zieler didn’t really take notice of what really happened, because he didn’t see this coming. “Unfortunately, I touched the ball slightly, otherwise the goal would not have counted anyway.” 

Despite this error, all went well for his team VfB Stuttgart. His team won with 2-1. 

Restart if nobody touches the ball

The correct answers for the restart are if nobody touches the ball after it has been thrown:

• if the ball enters the opponents’ goal – a goal kick is awarded
• if the ball enters the thrower’s goal – a corner kick is awarded

Match scenes from the incident