VAR did not consider Roberto Firmino to have impacted play for Liverpool's second goal against Crystal Palace on Sunday and therefore did not intervene to disallow it, says former referee Dermot Gallagher.
The Brazilian was in an offside position when Andy Robertson played the ball into the box on 32 minutes but he still challenged to win the header with Palace left-back Tyrick Mitchell, leaving Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain free at the back post.
When the ball evaded both Firmino and Mitchell, Liverpool's No 15 was on hand to take a touch before lashing past Vicente Guaita in the Palace goal.
Neither match referee Kevin Friend nor Craig Pawson or Simon Long on VAR duty decided to intervene though, with Liverpool going on to win the game 3-1.
Speaking on Sky Sports' Ref Watch, Gallagher explained how VAR would have come to their decision regarding the goal and why they had deemed it to be legal.
"You're active because you make a challenge for the ball - interfering with an opponent," he said.
"They felt that he didn't interfere with Tyrick Mitchell and he didn't impact on the goalkeeper because he didn't play the ball.
"That was the decision they came to. He was in an offside position - not an offence in itself - but he didn't impact on either of the two opponents."
Palace manager Patrick Vieira criticised the decision when speaking in his post-match press conference afterwards, saying it was clear that Firmino had an impact on the situation.
He was also upset by the decision to award Liverpool a soft penalty towards the end of the match which effectively killed the game off after Odsonne Edouard had pulled a goal back midway through the second half.
Kevin Friend had initially not given a foul when Diogo Jota and Vicente Guaita collided in the box but then reversed that decision upon consulting with the pitchside monitor and VAR.
Replays showed Jota intentionally moving his body into the path of Guaita to engineer contact, though this was clearly seen differently by the officials.
"I think no penalty," added Gallagher. "I think Jota overruns the ball. He steps into Guaita and Guaita takes his arms away. I was surprised I thought the referee would stick to his guns.
"You can see Jota alters his run, he comes away from the ball. That's the clue for me. The ball goes to the left and Jota goes to the right."
Unsurprisingly, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp came down on the referee's side for the penalty, yet admitted he hadn't had a chance to watch the moment back when speaking to reporters at full-time.
“I didn’t see it back yet,” he said in his post-match press conference.
“Diogo thought it was a penalty, I could see that on the pitch.
“VAR thought it was a penalty, that’s why the referee went to the screen so I’m not sure what we are talking about.
“Four eyes watched it.”
