UEFA Justifies Man Utd Penalty Against PSG

By Nigel Phillips 

UEFA has justified the penalty that was awarded to Manchester United against Paris Saint-Germain last Wednesday as it explains the rationale behind the call.

Manchester United led 2-1 close to full time, but were billed for elimination from the Champions League with 3-2 aggregate loss.

That was before a last-gasp penalty aided Marcus Rashford to change the result to 3-1 win qualification for the visitors on the away-goal rule.

Diogo Dalot unleashed a shot at goal which appeared to have deflected off Presnel Kimpembe's hand before changing direction to cross the corner line.

Referee, Damir Skominah, first, gave a corner kick, but changed that for a penalty after consulting the VAR.

The call brought controversies with some people agreeing with it while others thought otherwise.

UEFA has defended the call on the grounds that there was a clear handball and also that the incident stopped a goal-scoring situation. 

"The VAR, after checking various different angles available to him, recommended to the referee an on-field review following the penalty area incident," the statement read.

"Given that the referee did not recognize the incident clearly during live play (referred to as serious missed incident in the VAR protocol) an on-field review was conducted," explains the competition's organiser."

"Following the on-field review, the referee confirmed that the distance that the ball travelled was not short and the impact could therefore not be unexpected."

"The defender’s arm was not close to the body, which made the defender’s body bigger thus resulting in the ball being stopped from travelling in the direction of the goal. The referee, therefore, awarded a penalty kick."

"All the above-mentioned decisions were made in full compliance with the VAR protocol."