Newcastle were "robbed" by a "disgraceful" penalty decision as Paris Saint-Germain earned a last-gasp draw to deliver a hammer blow to Eddie Howe's sides Champions League hopes.
A remarkable rearguard display from Newcastle, who were juggling a staggering number of injuries to first-team stars, looked to have earned a famous 1-0 win in Paris after Aleksander Isak's first-half goal.
PSG were facing a second defeat in as many months to Newcastle until, in the eighth minute of stoppage time, Ousmane Dembele's cross hits Tino Livramento's body and then the ball bounced up on to the defender's arm.
The referee in charge, Szymon Marciniak, is considered one of the greatest in the game, having officiated last year's World Cup final between Argentina and France. He did not initially give a penalty but was told to review the decision by the VAR and subsquently awarded a spot kick. Kylian Mbappe stepped up and earned a 1-1 draw which keeps PSG's fate in their own hands.
"It's absolutely never a penalty... at this level it's a disgrace" 😤@allysbears and @jjenas8 have a strongly opinionated discussion around the awarding of the penalty which cost Newcastle the win...@laura_woodsy | #UCL pic.twitter.com/Da8dMe6dCc
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) November 28, 2023
Should have the penalty been awarded?
According to the laws of the game, a handball can occur when:
- There is a "deliberate action" by the player (ie moved their arm towards the ball)
- If the hand or arm is in "an unnatural position" (ie away from the body)
- If the guilty player could realistically have moved his hand or arm away to avoid contact
Referee Marciniak on Tuesday, following a pitchside review, decided that Livramento's arm was not in a natural position so a penalty was the correct decision, even though the ball first came off the defender's chest and he was unable to react quickly enough to avoid contact. Under UEFA rules, it was the correct decision.
However, in even more frustrating developments for Newcastle, UEFA's Football Board - an independent advisory group - recommended a change to the handball laws for this season which would have seen the penalty not awarded.
The statement on the organisation's website, said: "With regard to the Laws of the Game, which stipulate that not every touch of a player's hand/arm with the ball is an offence, the Board issued the following recommendations for next season for better compliance of the Laws with the nature of the game:
"In their guidelines for the next season, the Board recommends that UEFA should clarify that no handball offence should be called on a player if the ball is previously deflected from his own body and, in particular, when the ball does not go towards the goal."
The above recommendations were not implemented by UEFA for its own competitions. Should the incident have occurred in the Premier League, it would very likely not have led to the award of a penalty.
