The expert and referee commission concluded that during a meeting held under the auspices of the Refereeing and Inspection Department of the Russian Football Union, the penalty awarded to the Zenit goal in the match between Zenit and Akhmat in the group stage of the Russian Cup was deemed a mistake. This was reported by Euro-football.ru.
In this match, after consulting the VAR system and reviewing the video, the chief referee Mikhail Cheremnix determined that Aleksandr Sobolev had played the ball with his hand. Therefore, a penalty was awarded, and the Akhmat team managed to score one goal.
However, at the end of the match, the score was 2:1 in favor of Zenit. The commission's statement emphasized that although Aleksandr Sobolev's hand was in a position where it could have touched the ball, his hand was close to his body and did not move towards the ball.
For this reason, this situation was assessed as one that should not have been penalized. Initially, the referee's decision to continue the game was deemed correct, while the intervention of the VAR system was found to be incorrect.
This incident occurred near the end of the game, specifically in the 83rd minute.
