They robbed Newcastle? Huge [bleep], rages the England legend. It wasn’t a penalty under the rules, the coach doesn’t understand

Notch. That’s the word on the tongue of the Newcastle players after Tuesday’s game against PSG. The home side equalised in the 96th minute after a very controversial penalty that should not have been taken according to the rules.

Newcastle lose three points due to controversial penalty

Newcastle took the lead in the 24th minute thanks to Alexander Isak’s goal, after which they defended. PSG were under a lot of pressure in the second half in particular, but were unable to convert their chances.

Thus, the visitors’ defensive wall continued to resist, the first dismay came in the 90th minute when the referee set a surprising eight minutes. The pitch was certainly not interrupting play enough to need to set that many.

And in the 96th minute came the biggest shock. Dembélé’s pass in the visitors’ penalty area went into the body of Livramenta, from whom it bounced into his hand. PSG players immediately started to claim a penalty, but according to the rules, this is an example of a situation where a penalty should not be whistled. The interpretation is that if the ball bounces into the defending player’s hand from the body, it’s not a penalty.

But VAR called the otherwise brilliantly whistling referee Szymon Marciniak to go and look at the situation anyway. And the Polish referee, after a moment’s deliberation, pointed to the white dot. The penalty was then converted by Kylian Mbappé.

The bitterness remained in the Newcastle players. And not just them, this strange penalty resonated throughout England. Newcastle legend Alan Shearer, for example, was very vocal on the X network.

It’s a huge [Bleep]

“Do me a [bleep] favour. That’s a huge sh*t, ” Shearer wrote on X and added a VAR hasthag. In the comments afterwards, he even agreed with fans that it was disgusting.

“I don’t think it was a penalty. The replay doesn’t show the intensity of the speed the ball was travelling at. The first time the ball touches the body, that’s the key. If the ball touches the body first and then the hand, it’s not a penalty and it shouldn’t cost us the game,” Newcastle coach Eddie Howe told TNT.

“Logically, I can’t say what I think about it internally, ” he restrained his emotions from getting a possible big fine or a bench mark.

Source: TNT, X, UEFA