The reason Alejandro Garnacho was not penalized for handball in the lead-up to Bruno Fernandes’ penalty against Athletic Bilbao has now been clarified.
Following their dramatic quarter-final comeback against Lyon, Ruben Amorim fielded a strong Manchester United lineup in the Basque Country, while also welcoming Amad Diallo and Matthijs De Ligt back to the bench. ..Continue Reading
United opened the scoring when Harry Maguire displayed impressive skill to set up Casemiro for a close-range header.
Moments later, Rasmus Hojlund was brought down inside the penalty area as he prepared to finish, resulting in Dani Vivian’s dismissal for the challenge.
However, some fans felt Bilbao were unlucky not to have the penalty overturned, citing Garnacho’s prior handball.
Before delivering a pass to Noussair Mazraoui, whose cross led to the foul on Hojlund, Garnacho slipped and unintentionally controlled the ball with his hand.
While many supporters argued that VAR should have nullified the penalty as a result, the IFAB Laws of the Game have provided an explanation for why, despite the incident, the spot-kick stood.
The relevant section of Law 12, relating to handball, states: “A handball offence is not committed when a player heads, kicks or plays the ball with another part of their body and it then hits their own hand/arm (unless the ball goes directly into the opponent’s goal or the player scores immediately afterwards).”
As the winger kicked the ball against his hand as he stood up, it meant the action was considered accidental and not relevant to potential call for a handball.
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