The technology has been introduced to the competition for the first time, starting in this week’s knockout stages, and though Tuesday night’s games went largely without incident, in Amsterdam, that all changed.
Fullback Nicolas Tagliafico thought he had given Ajax a deserved lead shortly before half-time, after Thibaut Courtois spilled Matthias de Ligt’s header and he was first to react, nodding over the Madrid ‘keeper and in.
The Johan Cruyff ArenA erupted, and Ajax celebrated, but after a delay of several minutes referee Damir Skomina decided to take a closer look, consulting his touchline monitor, and eventually ruling the goal out.
The grounds for reversing the decision appeared to revolve around Dusan Tadic, who was very marginally offside and ruled to be interfering with Courtois’ attempt to deal with the second effort.
There was no appeal from Courtois himself, but what do you think?