Bayern Munich were denied a penalty when Joao Neves handled the ball inside the area at the half-hour mark of the Champions League semi-final second leg, a decision that stood despite protests and no VAR intervention.
The incident came after Vitinha blasted a clearance that struck Neves' arm inside the penalty area; referee Joao Pedro Silva Pinheiro waved away Bayern's appeals and the video assistant referees did not intervene. The match, played at the Allianz Arena on 6 May 2026, later produced late drama: Ousmane Dembele put Paris St-Germain ahead in the third minute, Harry Kane equalised for Bayern in the 94th minute, and PSG progressed to the final on a 6-5 aggregate score.
The decision over Neves' arm became the match's central flashpoint because of the way the laws of the game treat contact from a team-mate. Under the rules cited by officials, the ball striking a player’s arm after being played by a team-mate is not an automatic handball unless the ball goes directly into the opponents’ goal or the player immediately scores afterward. That exemption was applied in this case and explains why VAR stayed out.
Commentators and former players immediately picked over the application. Analyst Dale Johnson argued the rule covers situations when the ball is unexpectedly hit at a player by a team-mate — even if the player’s arm is away from their body — and that, absent deliberate intent, a penalty would not normally be expected. His reading matched the on-field decision to dismiss Bayern’s appeal.
The match also featured an earlier handball-related flare-up involving Nuno Mendes. Mendes had been booked in the opening eight minutes for a foul on Michael Olise, and he escaped a second yellow when the referee judged that, in that separate incident, the ball had struck a Bayern player's arm beforehand. That ruling kept Mendes on the field for the remainder of the tie.
For Bayern the no-penalty call was costly. They had pushed the tie hard after falling behind to Dembele’s early strike, and Kane’s stoppage-time finish salvaged an on-the-night draw but not progression. PSG will now prepare to meet Arsenal in the Champions League final in Budapest on 30 May — the immediate reward for advancing from a tie that will be remembered for its handball controversies.
Criticism of the law’s wording and its application was loud. One former England striker said the handball law had been badly handled and had tied officials in knots, while another commentator admitted he had not known about the specific team-mate exemption and said many people were confused by where the rule now stands. A further pundit called the exemption ‘‘a really stupid one,’’ pointing out the oddity that, by the letter of the rule, handling a ball that has been kicked and is in the air can go unpunished in some circumstances.
The match also carried echoes of the first leg, when PSG benefited from a deflection that led to a penalty after the ball ricocheted off Alphonso Davies. That earlier decision and Tuesday’s non-call underlined how interpretations of accidental contact and team-mate deflections have shaped both legs of this semi-final.
Referee Joao Pedro Silva Pinheiro’s choice not to award a spot-kick, and VAR’s decision not to overturn him, turned on the teammate-exemption clause. Whether that reading will be applied consistently in the run-in to the final — and whether teams will adapt to a rule that has now decided a semi-final — is the central question heading into Budapest on 30 May.
