UEFA on Friday explained why Manchester United’s controversial penalty in their Champions League round of 16 second-leg clash with Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday night was the right decision.
The European football governing body took to their official website to release a statement detailing why referee Damir Skomina awarded the penalty during Man United’s clash with PSG.
Marcus Rashford’s spot-kick saw Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men eliminate the Ligue 1 champions from the Champions League.
United, who lost 2-0 at home in the first leg, won 3-1 on the night to progress on away goals.
With the match looking to end 2-1, referee Damir Skomina adjudged Presnel Kimpembe to have handled the ball in the area, after consulting Video Assistant Referees (VAR).
But UEFA insisted that the use of VAR and Skomina’s decision to award a penalty in the Parc des Princes, was the correct interpretation of the law.
The statement read: “The VAR, after checking various different angles available to him, recommended to the referee an on-field review following the penalty area incident.
“Given that the referee did not recognise the incident clearly during live play (referred to as serious missed incident in the VAR protocol) an on-field review was conducted.
“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.”
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