Free-kick, penalty... or drop ball? VAR intervenes on Real Madrid handball

Romanian referee Istvan Kovacs was advised that Aurelien Tchouameni was too close to the shot and had his arm near to his body

Handball or not handball? Liverpool and Arsenal were both on the end of decisions for video assistant referee (VAR) penalties in the Champions League on Tuesday night.

Liverpool fans were left utterly confused when they had a free-kick overturned to be a dropped ball, just when they thought they had a penalty against Real Madrid.

But Arsenal were the beneficiaries despite a Slavia Prague handball coming about via a touch of the defender's head.

Meanwhile, was Tottenham Hotspur's Brennan Johnson unlucky to be sent off against FC Copenhagen?

Here's what happened.

Why Liverpool's free-kick became a dropped ball to Courtois

Liverpool's Dominik Szoboszlai attempted a shot on goal in the 30th minute, which was blocked by Real Madrid's Aurelien Tchouameni.

Referee Istvan Kovacs gave a free-kick against the Real Madrid player for handball, an offence which appeared really close to being inside the area.

It was checked by the VAR, Bastian Dankert, and when the referee jogged over to the pitchside monitor Liverpool fans inside Anfield cheered, expecting that a penalty was about to be awarded.

Except that's not what was happening.

A factual decision, the position where the handball happened, would only be made by the VAR, not the referee.

A referee is only sent to the monitor to judge a subjective decision, in this case handball. So by going to the screen, the referee was overturning his decision to give the handball.

But how did we get from a free-kick to Liverpool to restarting with a dropped ball for goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois?

Because the handball factually took place inside the box, it's a penalty. And a penalty is reviewable by the VAR.

If the handball had been confirmed as outside the area, the free-kick would have stood regardless of being right or wrong.

A foul given as a free-kick that is found to be inside the area doesn't automatically mean the referee should check it at the monitor. The foul decision still has to be a clear and obvious error.

So, for the penalty Liverpool conceded through VAR at Brentford on 25 October, it was deemed the on-field call of a foul by Virgil van Dijk on Dango Ouattara wasn't incorrect, just the position was wrong. The outcomes of these two incidents (free-kick to penalty to overturn) do not have to be the same.

It's maybe surprising that the penalty was overturned in a Uefa competition, but it was the correct outcome. Kovacs likely felt Tchouameni's arm was further out, but when the ball hit the hand of the Real Madrid player he had it very close to the body, with no horizontal barrier being created.

Because it's an overturned penalty, play restarts with the goalkeeper - effectively meaning Liverpool give up their attacking possession.

The cheers of Liverpool fans turned to gasps.

Did Arsenal get lucky with their VAR penalty?

Referees in European competition give greater weight to a decision when an arm is above the shoulder

Arsenal were given a penalty in the 32nd minute of their game at Slavia Prague, when Lukas Provod was ruled to have handled the ball after a corner was played into the box.

The ball came off Provod's head and on to the hand, so why did the VAR get involved?

It's very unlikely that this would have been a VAR penalty in the Premier League, but there is a distinction to be made between deliberately heading the ball and a deflection.

If a defender gets a firm contact on a header and nods it against their own raised arm, that shouldn't be a penalty.

But if there's negligible contact, so it's more of a deflection on to an arm which is above the shoulder, that creates a high risk of a spot-kick being awarded. And in Uefa competition, that's what we've come to expect.

Was Johnson unlucky with his VAR red card?

Johnson was sent off after a VAR review in the 57th minute of Spurs' thrashing of FC Copenhagen, and he was pretty unlucky.

He stretched in to try to win the ball off Marcos Lopez, but got nowhere near it, and after his boot came up off the ground it caught the back of Lopez's leg.

Referee Erik Lambrechts showed a yellow card, so was that really a clear and obvious error?

Uefa takes a dim view of any contact with a straight leg and studs up, which is obviously above the boot. That it might have been accidental doesn't get much consideration over the nature of the challenge.

Watch highlights of every Champions League game from 22:00 on Wednesday on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app.

There will also be a Champions League Match of the Day on BBC One on Wednesday, from 22:40 to 00:00.