Former Premier League referee Mark Halsey says that Marcos Alonso’s disallowed goal in Chelsea’s thrilling Champions League tie with Real Madrid was “correctly disallowed” but would have stood if the defender passed it to a teammate.
Chelsea fell short of reaching the Champions League semi-finals after blowing a 3-0 lead in Madrid, with Real pulling two goals back to send the La Liga side through 5-4 on aggregate.
However, a big talking point from the match was Alonso’s disallowed goal on the 63rd minute, which was ruled out by VAR for a handball.
“In real-time you don’t see anything wrong with his goal but when you see the replay, it just brushes his hand and obviously then he puts the ball into the back of the net.”
“As per law 12 – handling the ball, a player that scores after accidentally handling the ball, the goal must be disallowed.”
The former Premier League official, then explained a scenario where the goal would have stood, saying:
“Now had Alonso then passed it to a teammate, who then scored the goal, that goal would have been allowed.”
“It is only the goalscorer that can be penalised if he accidentally handles the ball; so as per law 12 on handling the ball on a VAR check, it was correctly disallowed for Alonso accidentally handling the ball, where it just brushed his hand. It is unfortunate but it is correct in law.”
The former referee also stated that it would have been impossible for the referee on the night Szymon Marciniak to have seen it in real-time and therefore the decision would have solely been made by the VAR officials.
“It would have been impossible to see that in real-time, so it is not the fault of the referee with that incident because you wouldn’t see that in real-time”, explained Halsey.
Although this might seem like a big decision for some, it did not affect the outcome of the match as Chelsea still went on to grab the third goal. It was building up to be a historic night for the Blues but they have no one to blame but themselves for failing to defend their crown.