What is a handball? Ref controversially rules against Bayern Munich twice in UCL semi vs. PSG

Paris Saint-Germain may have gotten off to a flying start in their triumph over Bayern Munich in the UEFA Champions League semifinals on Wednesday but the play was overshadowed by two decisions by referee Joao Pinheiro as Bayern appealed unsuccessfully for two different handballs in quick succession.

Bayern's players went into a frenzy in the 29th minute when the ball touched Nuno Mendes' outstretched arm, the hosts hoping the referee would call it a handball. It would have resulted in Mendes' expulsion from the match since he had picked up a yellow card in the eighth minute but the referee decided against the call. Pinheiro, though, ultimately ruled that Konrad Laimer committed a handball of his own beforehand, ending the play and making Mendes' handball irrelevant.

About a minute later, Joao Neves stretched his arm out in the box as the ball came towards him, leading Bayern's players to ask for a handball and a penalty. Pinheiro denied the request quickly despite the protests of the home team, play resuming shortly after.

The frustration for Bayern did not stem simply from the aggregate deficit but likely from a call Pinheiro's counterpart, Sandro Scharer, made in last week's first leg on a very similar play. A handball was called against Bayern's Alphonso Davies just before halftime, paving the way for Dembele to score a penalty in a back-and-forth first leg.

A key differentiator between the incident with Neves in the second leg and the one involving Davies in the first, though, is that Neves' arm made contact with a ball kicked by Vitinha, the handball rule not extending to instances involving two teammates rather than adversaries.

PSG went on to win the tie 6-5 on aggregate after a 1-1 draw on Wednesday, Ousmane Dembele and Harry Kane scoring for each side. They will face Arsenal in the Champions League final on May 30 at Puskas Arena in Budapest, Hungary.

What do the rules say?

While the incident involving Mendes came down to a judgment call from Pinheiro, the referee leaned upon a rule from the laws of the game, invalidating a sequence that ends in a handball if it involves two teammates rather than two adversaries.

Per the guidance of the IFAB, which oversees the rules of the game globally, "this is not a handball (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)."

Kompany: 'I don't understand' the calls

Bayern Munich coach Vincent Kompany was upset with the non-calls, acknowledging the rule that cancels out handballs when the incident involves teammates but maintaining that last week's events involving Davies also should not have warranted a penalty.

"My job is to analyze what Bayern Munich can do better but why it's not a red card," he said during an appearance on the UEFA Champions League Today post-match show. "I don't understand. Why we concede a penalty in Paris and why we don't receive a penalty here -- I understand the rules. I get it. It's your own player, kicks it out but the hand is flapping somewhere in the air above his head whereas our situation, it clearly goes to the body, then goes to the hand and everybody who's played the game knows that it's something that's impossible to do anything about. In other situations, it hadn't been given in other games very [recently] after we played. It plays a part. It plays a part."

He went on to admit that the incidents left a sour taste in the mouth for Bayern, who were competing for a treble and hoped to win the Champions League for the first time since 2020.

"I think we're able to respect the caliber of opposition we played against but when the games are so tight, when the players are giving so much of their energy to achieve that goal and overall, when they do so well -- at least if you lose and it's your own doing and only your own doing, then it is what it is but it felt like there was a little bit of a hand in that game that just tilted it always to the wrong side for us," he added. "Takes nothing away from the quality of PSG but if you look back at the phases, what am I supposed to say?"