The Premier League issued an official explanation following Alexis Mac Allister’s last-minute goal, addressing the key decision that sparked debate after the final whistle
18:17, 22 Feb 2026
Alexis Mac Allister celebrates after scoring for Liverpool against Nottingham Forest
Alexis Mac Allister celebrates after scoring for Liverpool against Nottingham Forest(Image: Getty Images)
The Premier League has released an official explanation following Alexis Mac Allister’s dramatic last-minute goal.
Liverpool edged past Nottingham Forest with a 1-0 victory in the Premier League, though the result was surrounded by late drama involving Mac Allister. The midfielder initially believed he had scored a decisive goal in the closing moments, only for it to be ruled out after VAR confirmed the ball struck his elbow.
As the contact occurred below the shirt sleeve and led directly to a goal, the effort was disallowed regardless of intent, before a subsequent late strike was allowed to stand. The Argentinian eventually went on to score the winner in the 97th minute, which was checked for an offside offense by Virgil van Dijk, but ended up standing.
READ MORE: Nottingham Forest 0-1 Liverpool LIVE: Late Mac Allister goal after VAR check, Wirtz injuryREAD MORE: Arne Slot hails 'incredible impact' of Rio Ngumoha after dramatic win vs. Nottingham Forest
The Premier League Match Center on X has released a statement which said: After VAR review, the referee overturned the original decision of goal to Liverpool.
"Referee announcement: "After review, the ball hits the arm of the goal scorer, Liverpool No. 10. Therefore, it's an accidental handball by the goal scorer, so the final decision is a direct free kick.'"
"It did [hit my arm], but I feel like it's a bit harsh," Mac Allister later admitted. "It's a bit of both, but I understand the rules. I thought I would get another one. I told Hugo this would be our goal. I'm glad that it went in.
"We need to analyze what we did well and what went wrong. The intensity wasn't there, but we did what we did to win."
Liverpool won on Sunday
Liverpool won on Sunday(Image: Carl Recine/Getty Images)
Liverpool suffered a setback before Sunday's game when Florian Wirtz picked up an injury during the warm-up. Mac Allister continued: "Florian is a really good player and really important for us.
"It was a different shape and a different way to play. It didn't work, but we will keep working, and next game we can do better."
On the ending to the game, Arne Slot said: "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.
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"But then 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."