Following his recommendation and review of the replay, the referee reversed his original decision and awarded a penalty, from which the winning goal was scored.
Arbitrator Victor Kopievsky, working on the VAR system during the match of the 6th round of the UPL Polesie – Veres (2:1), passed the test polygraph in the Ukrainian Football Association, reported journalist Vladimir Zverov.
Kopievsky recommended that the referee of the match, Alexander Afanasyev, review the episode in which the ball hit the hand of defender Veres Mikhail Protasevich. Afanasyev, after reviewing the replay, changed his initial decision (continuation of the game) and awarded a penalty, from which Alexander Nazarenko scored the winning goal.
Earlier, Nicola Rizzoli, a consultant on arbitration for the Committee of Referees of the Ukrainian Football Association, admitted that the referees made the wrong decision in favor of Poliesia in the match against Veres.
The expert opinion on this episode is:
“Veres’ player #17, after the ball has bounced off his body onto the opponent’s body, tries to kick the ball away, the ball bounces off the opponent’s body a second time, who is engaged in a duel with it, and the ball changes direction in an unpredictable way, which makes the kick extremely unexpected. The arm, although withdrawn, is in a natural position for this dynamic. Therefore, these two elements (the arm in a natural position and the unexpected ball) make the contact between the ball and the arm such that it is not subject to punishment.”
Poliesie is third in the UPL, Veres is in 14th place. The Zhytomyr team will play away against Karpaty on September 28. The red-blacks will host Shakhtar on September 27.
Source: Sportarena

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