Explaining why Real Betis’ goal against Manchester United wasn’t disallowed for handball by VAR

Despite Manchester United’s comfortable 4-1 win against Real Betis in the Europa last 16, there was controversy surrounding the visitor’s equaliser.

United took the lead inside the first five minutes when Marcus Rashford‘s high-driven strike flew past former Manchester City goalkeeper Claudio Bravo. 

But their early efforts were later cancelled out by their Spanish opposition, as Ayoze Pérez made it 1-1 on the night at the half-hour mark. 

However, the ball seemed to deflect off Juanmi’s arm after the winger attempted to chest the ball down before providing Pérez. 

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Raphael Varane raised his arm in protest while still attempting to defend, but a VAR review concluded that the goal stood. 

The rule book states that when the ball ricochets off another body part before striking the arm below the T-shirt line, this is referred to as accidental handball. 

The rules of the game indicate that if there was an unintentional handball in the lead-up that was not committed by the goalscorer, the strike stands. But, if the goalkeeper handled the ball before throwing it into the net, unintentionally or not, the goal would be null and void.

Rashford was the subject of such a scenario earlier this season against both Everton and Wolves, with goals called off as a result. During halftime during United’s match against Betis, former United player Paul Scholes slammed the verdict and believed Juanmi knew what he was doing when he received the ball. 

As mentioned, the contentious counterpunch didn’t harm United much on the night, as they showed their superiority in the second half — scoring three to make it 4-1 in the tie.