It was a pulsating first leg of the Champions League quarter-final between Arsenal and Bayern Munich at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday night. We have come to expect thrilling encounters in Europe's premier competition and the north London match did not disappoint.
In fact, both matches on the night were thrillers. Real Madrid and Manchester City played out an entertaining 3-3 draw in the Santiago Bernabeu at the same time as Arsenal and Bayern were drawing 2-2.
The match at the Emirates Stadium was not without controversy though.
Some believe Harry Kane should have been sent off for an apparent elbow on Gabriel Magalhaes. It was not into his face, it was in his neck and it looked like he was trying to leverage the Arsenal defender out of the way rather than being malicious.
However, it did not look good on the replays and the former Tottenham man can count himself lucky that VAR did not get involved. VAR not getting involved was going to become a common theme.
Gabriel had also been involved in another incident that left Bayern Munich boss Thomas Tuchel incensed. David Raya appeared to take a goal-kick after the referee blew his whistle. Gabriel proceeded to touch the ball with his hands and put it down to take a goal-kick for himself, not realising Raya had just done so.
Bayern players could not believe it and went asking the referee for a penalty, while Tuchel went frantic on the touchline. Again VAR did not intervene.
READ MORE: Gabriel madness leads to Bukayo Saka penalty humility as Arsenal learn Champions League lesson
READ MORE: Why Bukayo Saka Arsenal penalty was not given vs Bayern Munich after VAR controversy
Then, with almost the last kick of the game, Bukayo Saka went clean through and went down under the challenge of Bayern keeper Manuel Neuer. There was contact, but who initiated contact, that is the question? Once more, VAR had nothing to say and that was that, 2-2 was the final score.
If we leave the Harry Kane incident out of it, we've got two penalty decisions, one for each side, to look at (not including the penalty for Bayern which was given after William Saliba brought down Leroy Sane). Both could have been penalties. Both were instead not given.
And there are probably two real reasons for Saka's spot-kick not being awarded. First let's look at the Gabriel penalty incident. Tuchel said afterwards that the referee had admitted it was a mistake, saying "he saw the situation and that a quarter-final is not enough for him to give a penalty for this mistake, for a kid’s mistake, he admitted he knew about the mistake the player made and that is a bit frustrating".
Glenn Nyberg, rightly or wrongly, did not want to give a penalty for something so foolhardy in a game of such magnitude. By the letter if the law he should have, but he decided against potentially having his decision decide a Champions League quarter-final.
And that led to the Saka penalty incident. Was the Gabriel situation running through his mind when Saka went through? Perhaps. It would be hard for him not to think about it in that moment.
And also, when Saka went to ground, there were 23 seconds left on the clock. Another incidence of Nyberg not wanting to make a decision that could alter the course of a massive match.
He is there to make these decisions, of course, and these are the decisions he has made - to ignore both and carry on. What it does do is set us up for a very intriguing second leg at the Allianz Arena next week.
It's Arsenal vs Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-final first leg this week and the only place you can watch the action, apart from at the Emirates Stadium, is live on TNT Sports.
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