Arsenal have been told that referee Slavko Vincic saved them from conceding a penalty during the 1-0 defeat to PSG in the Champions League semi-final first leg on Tuesday night.
were under the cosh in the opening ten minutes and went behind after Ousmane Dembele's strike worked its way through a crowd to nestle in the net, off the post. Then the PSG players thought they should have had a penalty when Khvicha Kvaratskhelia went to ground under a challenge from .
Vincic decided it was not a foul and did not intervene leading to the Parisians questioning the decision. But explaining what happened on , their rules expert and former FIFA referee Christina Unkel, said: "If a penalty had been given, VAR would not have intervened and here we don't want VAR to intervene.
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"We want the referee's decision to stand and the preferred decision would be no penalty, let the referee's decision stand. He can feel it, he can sense it and he can understand how much of an impact that actual arm extension was."
The referee may have savedon that occasion but he was not a popular man inside the Emirates Stadium. Vincic was jeered off the pitch and booed when he returned for the second half after giving a number of decisions that the Gunners were unhappy with.
Frustration was also being felt by Arsenal's players too with booked for kicking the ball away in anger after awarding a free kick against him. Reflecting on the referee before the second half started, Alan Shearer told that he understood the fans' frustrations but did explain why Vincic got the penalty decision right.
"His [Timber] arm is around him, he's asking for trouble doing that, but he [Kvaratskhelia] does go down very easily," the Newcastle United legend explained. "Looking at it from a forward's point of view, if that's an Arsenal player and the same thing happens, they're wanting a penalty.
"It's one of those where if he [the referee] gives it, it's not being turned over. Perhaps not enough to give it anyway when he hasn't given that decision."
