Liverpool gets new referee verdict after Alexis Mac Allister goal vs Forest

Alexis Mac Allister scored Liverpool's winning goal against Nottingham Forest on Sunday, having minutes earlier seen a goal disallowed following a VAR intervention

Alexis Mac Allister saw a goal disallowed before going on to score the winner for Liverpool against Forest(Image: 2026 Getty Images)

Mark Clattenburg agreed that the VAR was right to disallow a late goal from Alexis Mac Allister during Liverpool's win over Nottingham Forest on Sunday.

Mac Allister thought he had won the game at the beginning of stoppage time when a clearance by a Forest player hit him and rebounded into the back of the net. However, after a VAR check it was adjudged that the ball had hit Mac Allister's arm, and so the goal was chalked off. Ex-Premier League referee Clattenburg believes the right decision was made.

“The VAR checked to see if the ball had hit the arm of Mac Allister before going into the goal," Clattenburg said. "From one angle, it looks like the ball hits the back, but when you look at other angles, it looks like it hits the back of the arm.

“Therefore, the laws of the game are clear, if the ball accidentally hits an attacker’s arm and goes in the goal, a goal cannot be allowed, and the restart is a free kick.”

Mac Allister went on to score a legitimate winning for the Reds just minutes later as he pounced on a rebound to smash the ball home, sending the away end at the City Ground into pandemonium.

The win moved Liverpool level on points with Chelsea in the battle for Champions League qualification.

Alexis Mac Allister scored a legitimate winner just minutes after his first goal was disallowed(Image: 2026 Ben Roberts - Danehouse)

However, in his post-game press conference, Arne Slot admitted that he was not happy with the team's performance.

"My emotions were emotions of happiness and relief," Slot said of Mac Allister's late winner. "This is probably the first time I have to do a different post-match press conference than I did throughout all these other games, because today we did not play a good game.

"The performance, especially in the first half, was not as we've had so many times this season. But we've been on the wrong side of the score after a good performance far too many times. Today, I think we got more than we deserved.

"A draw would have been a fairer result of this game than for us to win it."

On Mac Allister's disallowed goal, Slot said: "You think you win it because Hugo [Ekitike] already got a big, big, big chance from a great cross from Rio Ngumoha, misses it, the ball comes back, goes into the net.

"Since VAR is there, I always struggle to celebrate too much if I think, 'There might be something going on.' You never know if a ball has hit the body where it ended up. Apparently, it ended up on his arm, so it was disallowed.

"Then my emotions were, 'OK, still not everything that could have gone against us this season has happened yet. Still one more to go.'

"But maybe fortune has changed two or three minutes later, where again we thought we scored the winner, again they took a long time to check it, but this time the referee pointed at the kick-off, which meant that we won the game."