UEFA have moved to explain the decision to award Manchester United a last-gasp penalty which gave them the 3-1 win over Paris St Germain and a place in the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
Trailing 2-0 from the first-leg at Old Trafford, the Red Devils were leading 2-1 going into injury time on Wednesday night when a VAR-awarded spot-kick after Diogo Dalot’s shot struck Presnel Kimpembe on the arm allowed Marcus Rashford to fire in for a dramatic win on away goals.
There were split opinions on the award of the penalty with former Premier League official Peter Walton insisting there was no doubt, while Mark Clattenberg claimed it would not have been awarded in the domestic competition.
However, Rangers manager Gerrard, a former Liverpool captain, said: “The rules are the rules and we all have to expect that and respect it as well, because the rules are not going to change, certainly during the season.
“Listening to some of the officials commenting on it, is very interesting because they say the penalty decision was correct and the referee was correct.
“When I saw it initially I am thinking the PSG defender was very hard done by, it is very harsh on PSG but if you look at the rules it is the right decision.
“That is the reason why VAR is so important because without it, that probably gets missed and then Manchester United go out the cup which would have been nice from a Liverpool fan’s point of view but it would have been an injustice.”
Meanwhile, Neymar couldn’t contain his anger over the incident, taking to Instagram to vent. He said: “This is a disgrace, they put four people that know nothing about football in charge of looking at the replay for VAR.
“There is no penalty. How can it be a handball when it hits his back! Go f**k yourselves!”