Why was Jarell Quansah’s goal against Toulouse ruled out in Liverpool defeat? Handball rule explained as Jurgen Klopp reacts
Liverpool academy graduate Jarell Quansah was denied a first professional goal by VAR in the club's 3-2 defeat to Toulouse.
The 20-year-old thought he'd made himself the hero when he fired home in the seventh and final minute of added time in France.
The goal would have rescued Liverpool a point in what was a dire performance as the Reds squandered the chance to secure qualification for the Europa League knockout stage with two matches remaining.
However, Quansah's dreams were dashed after VAR alerted referee Georgi Kabakov to a potential handball in the build-up.
After a lengthy delay, the goal was chalked off for a handball from Alexis Mac Allister.
While the offence itself was not particularly contentious, the debate was sparked by whether it occurred too early for VAR to get involved.
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Why was Quansah's goal ruled out?
Referee Kabakov was instructed to review his decision to allow Liverpool's equaliser due to a handball by Mac Allister.
But UEFA's guidelines - which differ from the Premier League - note that goals can be disallowed for any handball in an attack phase.
As per UEFA's website, the recommended guidelines for 2023/24 suggest 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."
That seemingly would have applied to Mac Allister, with there being thirteen seconds between the handball and the goal, but the change was not formally ratified.
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In that time, possession was exchanged between the two sides and multiple third parties changed the course of the attack.
First, Mac Allister played a squared pass to Trent Alexander-Arnold whose resulting clipped ball to Mohamed Salah was cut out by Rasmus Nicolaisen.
But UEFA's stringent rules state that a clearance to the opposition is not a reset of the phase unless it is upfield.
Dominik Szoboszlai then collected the loose ball to stand up a deep cross before Quansah and Darwin Nunez both played the ball ahead of the young defender finding the net.
Jurgen Klopp understandably was bemused by VAR's intervention, pointing out that the ball ricocheted off Mac Allister's chest before striking the underside of his arm.
He said: "I only saw the video back now and for me it's not a handball, but how can I decide that?
"The ball goes to the chest and then I don't see a contact with the arm, to be honest. Maybe they had a different picture than I had.
"It was pretty long ago before we scored the goal and I thought, 'where is the free-kick?' I didn't see it properly but I heard there could have been a penalty for us in another situation, I don't know.
"Actually, I am a bit more concerned about [the fact that] I would have loved us to have played better, to be honest. That's my main issue tonight. In a football way more aggressive."