Barcelona's supporters knew it the moment it happened, and now UEFA has essentially conceded the point: Marc Pubill handball against Barca was indeed a penalty.
In the first match of their Champions League quarterfinals tie against Atletico Madrid in April, Pubill caught a short goal-kick from Juan Musso off the foot directly on his box with his hand. The official, Istvan Kovacs, declined to call a penalty, and VAR seemed nowhere to be seen or heard. Atletico boss Diego Simeone insisted at the time that the non-call was common sense. Barcelona, down a man to that point already, went on to lose the match 2-0.
According to Mundo Deportivo, new instructions to referees across Europe by UEFA cleared up the matter of what constitutes that call: there is to be no discretion or interpretation applied in this situation. For an outfielder to touch a live ball with his hand in his box, the ball must result in a penalty kick. Period.
Hans Flick was understandably losing his mind at the time, declaring that VAR completely failed his team when they most needed it to perform. His assertion is completely accurate now.
This, obviously, will not affect last season's final results nor bring Barcelona back into last year's Champions League semifinals. But for a club that exited such a crucial and ridiculous situation in such a stupid fashion, the UEFA clarification offers a comprehensive validation that couldn't have come soon enough, though the validation itself will take a while to be accepted.
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