Aston Villa receive new referee verdict as double VAR point made in RB Leipzig win

Former Premier League official Mark Clattenburg agreed with both offside decisions in the second half of RB Leipzig vs Aston Villa, which saw Unai Emery's side denied a 3-1 advantage before they were pegged back and ultimately snatched victory late on.

Villa's latest European journey took them to Germany to face Leipzig. A John McGinn strike - with barely four minutes gone - was later cancelled out when Lois Openda capitalised on an Emi Martinez blunder.

It set up a tasty second half and Emery turned to his weapon of choice in these scenarios - Jhon Duran. The Colombian had not scored since October 30, but first beat Peter Gulacsi with a long-range strike for 2-1, and thought he had made it 3-1 in the 58th minute.

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However, VAR Aleandro Di Paolo made use of semi-automated offside technology to review his goal. He found that the goal-scorer was in an offside position earlier in the goal-scoring move, so denied him his brace.

"It's very, very tight on the first phase. It's okay on the second phase - because Duran's behind the ball when the pass is made, so they're going to look at first phase - is he ahead of the player?" ex-referee Clattenburg analysed while on duty for Amazon's Prime Video.

On the offside verdict, he added: "My feeling is his foot is in an offside position."

The lead was still with Villa at least - though that was only momentary. Openda assisted Christoph Baumgartner, who neatly hooked an equalising volley into the top left-hand corner of the goal.

This time Openda was under scrutiny of the semi-automated offside, with Clattenburg stating: "This one certainly looked tighter than Duran's one. It looks like his feet are behind, but he's leaning forwards.

"That could be what's either playing him on or offside."

Clattenburg agreed as a decision was awarded to the home side moments later, with replays of the technology's interpretation showing only the Leipzig striker's lower arm trailing beyond Villa's last defender.

Ross Barkley then struck in the 85th minute - albeit with the aid of a big deflection - to ensure a 3-2 win and much better footing to secure automatic knock-out qualification with two games to go.