Why Bayern Munich were not awarded a penalty for handball against Joao Neves - and was Nuno Mendes lucky to escape red card?

The hosts were left incensed in the first-half of the tie at the Allianz Arena, with Nuno Mendes escaping a second yellow card and Joao Neves subsequently not penalised with a spot-kick.

TNT Sports expert Owen Hargreaves argued that a potential Nuno Mendes red card would have "changed the game completely."

As it was, defending champions PSG held on to a 1-1 draw to defeat the Bundesliga champions and march into the final to face Arsenal via a 6-5 aggregate scoreline.

But why did referee Joao Pinheiro find in favour of the Parisians on both occasions?

The first saw Mendes stop the ball with his arm as Bayern were looking to break down the right flank. Pinheiro did whistle for handball - but against Konrad Laimer.

The Bayern Munich man appeared to control the ball with his chest and then his arm moments before flicking it onto his opponent's.

"The referee can't see that," Hargreaves said at half-time. "So the linesman must have said to him, it's hit his [Laimer's] hand.

"I think it looks like it hits his chest first. It definitely hits Mendes' hand and he's already had a yellow card before that. There's no way the referee could have made that decision. It must have been the linesman.

"You could argue it looks like a handball [from Laimer]. It depends on the angle that they saw it. But I think if that would have been another yellow card for Mendes, it would have changed the game completely."

Two minutes later, Neves saw the ball strike his outstretched arm in his own penalty area from a Vitinha clearance.

The resulting penalty could have offered the home side parity on the night, long before Harry Kane scored in the 94th minute.

But according to the Laws of the Game, as set out by the International Football Association Board (IFAB), a penalty could not have been awarded because of an exemption.

The Law states that it is not a handball offence when a player "is hit on the hand/arm by the ball which has been played by a team-mate (unless the ball goes directly into the opponents’ goal or the player scores immediately afterwards, in which case a direct free kick is awarded to the other team)."

"Bayern have been a little bit unfortunate," said Hargreaves. "It obviously hits Neves on the hand. If a Bayern player would have kicked it, that would have been a penalty and that's why the Bayern players are so furious.

"Sometimes you need a bit of luck in these games and it didn't really go Bayern's way."

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