There was a bizarre moment in the Champions League on Tuesday night as Barcelona hosted Olympiacos where a goal was chalked off - only for a penalty to be given.
Ayoub El Kaabi headed home from a Daniel Podence cross in the second half, halving Barca's lead after the Spaniard's went 2-0 up.
But VAR decided to intervene and send the referee to the pitchside monitor because of a suspected handball.
Indeed, the cameras picked up the ball brushing Eric Garcia on the hand in an earlier moment, which led to protestations from El Kaabi.
Play went on before the Morocco international planted home his header, leading to wild celebrations among the travelling Greek fans.
But they were cut short by the VAR intervention - which chalked off the Olympiacos goal before awarding them a penalty.
The referee disallowed Olympiacos' goal only to award them a penalty instead
|REUTERS
El Kaabi stepped up and scored the resulting spot-kick to spare further controversy if he missed, but the bizarre moment of play might have been the right decision.
That is because after Garcia handballed, the ball brushed off El Kaabi's head and found itself at Podence's feet.
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The former Wolves star was standing in an offside position at the time as he went on to deliver the cross for the eventual goal.
It means that the goal would have been disallowed for offside, meaning VAR returned to the earlier passage of play.
So it instead went back to the handball incident, giving the penalty after cameras picked up Garcia handling the ball.
Got all that? Me neither.
Ayoub El Kaabi scored Olympiacos' penalty after a confusing moment of play
|REUTERS
However, disaster struck moments after El Kaabi's goal as Santiago Hezze was shown a second yellow card for an innocuous foul.
It saw the Greek side reduced to 10 men before further controversy in Catalonia.
Marcus Rashford raced through on goal minutes later only to be taken down by Olympiacos goalkeeper Konstantinos Tzolakis.
However, the Manchester United loanee appeared to have knocked the ball past the keeper and had lost control of it before he was brought down.
Nevertheless, the referee was sent to the pitchside monitor for a second time before giving the penalty.
Lamine Yamal made no mistake, making it 3-1 after earlier goals from Fermin Lopez in the first half.
El Kaabi pulls one back for Olympiacos!
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His first Champions League goal of the season makes it 2-1 ⚽️
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Rashford then went on to score himself to put the game to bed, continuing his fine form at Barcelona before Lopez completed his hat-trick with a venomous strike.
The England international got another before full-time, making it four goals in the Champions League after his double against Newcastle earlier in the season.