Why Var Intervened On Liverpool's Handball Penalty

Handball aliases not handball? Liverpool and Arsenal were some connected nan extremity of decisions for VAR penalties successful nan Champions League connected Tuesday night.

Liverpool fans were near utterly confused erstwhile they had a free-kick overturned to beryllium a dropped ball, conscionable erstwhile they thought they had a punishment against Real Madrid.

But Arsenal were nan beneficiaries contempt a Slavia Prague handball coming astir via a touch of nan defender's head.

Meanwhile, was Tottenham Hotspur's Brennan Johnson unlucky to beryllium sent disconnected against FC Copenhagen?

Here's what happened.

Liverpool's Dominik Szoboszlai attempted a changeable connected extremity successful nan 30th minute, which was blocked by Real Madrid's Aurelien Tchouameni.

Referee Istvan Kovacs gave a free-kick against nan Real Madrid subordinate for handball, an offence which appeared really adjacent to being wrong nan area.

It was checked by nan VAR, Bastian Dankert, and erstwhile nan referee jogged complete to nan pitchside show Liverpool fans wrong Anfield cheered, expecting that a punishment was astir to beryllium awarded.

Except that's not what was happening.

A actual decision, nan position wherever nan handball happened, would only beryllium made by nan VAR, not nan referee.

A referee is only sent to nan show to judge a subjective decision, successful this lawsuit handball. So by going to nan screen, nan referee was overturning his determination to springiness nan handball.

But really did we get from a free-kick to Liverpool to restarting pinch a dropped shot for goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois?

Because nan handball factually took spot wrong nan box, it's a penalty. And a punishment is reviewable by nan VAR.

If nan handball had been confirmed arsenic extracurricular nan area, nan free-kick would person stood sloppy of being correct aliases wrong.

It's possibly astonishing that it was overturned successful a Uefa competition, but it was nan correct outcome. Kovacs apt felt Tchouameni's limb was further out, but erstwhile nan shot deed nan manus of nan Real Madrid subordinate he had it very adjacent to nan body, pinch nary horizontal obstruction being created.

Because it's an overturned penalty, play restarts pinch nan goalkeeper - efficaciously meaning Liverpool springiness up their attacking possession.

The cheers of Liverpool fans turned to gasps.

Arsenal were fixed a punishment successful nan 32nd infinitesimal of their crippled astatine Slavia Prague, erstwhile Lukas Provod was ruled to person handled nan shot aft a area was played into nan box.

The shot came disconnected Provod's caput and connected to nan ball, truthful why did nan VAR get involved?

It's very improbable that this would person been a VAR punishment successful nan Premier League, but location is simply a favoritism to beryllium made betwixt deliberately heading nan shot and a deflection.

If a defender gets a patient interaction connected a header and nods it against their ain raised arm, that shouldn't beryllium a penalty.

But if there's negligible contact, truthful it's much of a deflection connected to an limb which is supra nan shoulder, that creates a precocious consequence of a spot-kick being awarded. And successful Uefa competition, that's what we've travel to expect.

Johnson was sent disconnected aft a VAR reappraisal successful nan 57th infinitesimal of Spurs' thrashing of FC Copenhagen, and he was beautiful unlucky.

He stretched successful to effort to triumph nan shot disconnected Marcos Lopez, but sewage obscurity adjacent it, and aft his footwear came up disconnected nan crushed it caught nan backmost of Lopez's leg.

Referee Erik Lambrechts showed a yellowish card, truthful was that really a clear and evident error?

Uefa takes a dim position of immoderate interaction pinch a consecutive limb and studs up, which is evidently supra nan boot. That it mightiness person been accidental doesn't get overmuch information complete nan quality of nan challenge.

Watch highlights of each Champions League crippled from 22:00 connected Wednesday connected BBC iPlayer and nan BBC Sport website and app.

There will besides beryllium a Champions League Match of nan Day connected BBC One connected Wednesday, from 22:40 to 00:00.