Nations League VAR Review: Every Major Referee Decision From Sunday

Sunday’s UEFA Nations League action produced eight matches, 17 goals and several situations that required important decisions from referees and VAR teams.

Not every match delivered a major controversy, and that matters. A refereeing review should not search for mistakes where none exist. But there were still plenty of incidents worth examining.

The Netherlands were awarded a penalty in Serbia, Denmark had one goal disallowed and another checked against Wales, Gonçalo Ramos saw a second goal ruled out for Portugal in Norway, Kosovo were awarded a late penalty in Austria, and Lithuania also scored from the spot against Azerbaijan.

There was also an interesting late incident in Denmark vs Wales, where a potential Wales goal could not be considered by VAR because the referee had already stopped play. Here is The VAR Verdict’s full review of the major refereeing and VAR decisions from Sunday’s Nations League matches.

Serbia 1-2 Netherlands: Was the Netherlands penalty correct?

The first significant decision in Belgrade came after half an hour. Crysencio Summerville entered the Serbian penalty area and was challenged by Aleksa Terzić, with the referee deciding the contact constituted a foul.

A penalty was awarded to the Netherlands. Mexx Meerdink converted it to give Oranje a 1-0 lead on his first international start.

From a refereeing perspective, this was one of Sunday’s more straightforward penalty decisions. The important question under Law 12 is whether the defender’s challenge illegally trips, tackles or otherwise impedes the attacker.

Once Terzić commits to the challenge and makes illegal contact that brings Summerville down inside the penalty area, the location determines the restart: penalty kick.

There was no need for VAR to manufacture a different interpretation. VAR’s role is to check whether the foul occurred, whether it was inside the area, whether there was an attacking offence immediately beforehand and whether there was any other clear reason to cancel the penalty. Nothing emerged that required the original decision to be changed.

The VAR Verdict: Correct penalty.

Meerdink later scored again in the 69th minute after Luka Jović had equalised immediately after half-time, giving the Netherlands a 2-1 victory.

Denmark 2-0 Wales: Isaksen’s goals and the late Wales incident

Isaksen’s first goal correctly ruled out

The most VAR-heavy match of Sunday was probably Denmark vs Wales. Gustav Isaksen thought he had produced one of the goals of the evening in the 24th minute.

Denmark broke quickly and Rasmus Højlund delivered a cross for Isaksen, who finished superbly. The celebration did not last. A VAR check identified an offside in the attacking phase, and the goal was disallowed.

Offside decisions are different from subjective penalty or red-card reviews. VAR does not need to determine whether the referee made a “bad judgement” about the challenge. The relevant question is positional: was the attacker in an offside position at the relevant moment, and did he then become involved in active play?

If the calibrated offside process establishes that the player was beyond the second-last opponent, the goal must be disallowed even when the margin is extremely small. That can sometimes feel harsh when a goal itself is excellent, but the quality of the finish is irrelevant to Law 11.

The VAR Verdict: Correct intervention.

Isaksen’s second goal survived VAR, correctly

Denmark eventually took the lead through an unfortunate Ben Davies own goal in the 53rd minute. Then came another VAR check.

Isaksen struck Denmark’s second in the 66th minute after a dangerous set-piece sequence. The ball was initially cleared off the line before Isaksen drove the rebound towards goal, with a deflection helping it beyond Danny Ward. This time the check ended with the goal being confirmed.

That is an important part of VAR that is often overlooked. VAR is not there only to cancel goals. Every goal is checked for possible offences in the attacking phase, including offside, handball and fouls. When the check finds no clear offence, the referee’s original decision is confirmed.

After losing a goal to VAR earlier in the evening, Denmark had no problem with the technology on this occasion.

The VAR Verdict: Goal correctly allowed.

Højlund’s late goal was also ruled out for offside

Denmark could have scored again late on. Højlund found the net with only a few minutes remaining, but he had moved into an offside position before finishing. The goal was correctly disallowed.

Again, this falls under Law 11 rather than a subjective interpretation of contact. If the attacker is in an offside position when the relevant pass is played and then becomes involved by receiving or playing the ball, the decision is straightforward.

The VAR Verdict: Correct offside decision.

Why VAR could not give Wales a late goal

There was another incident late in Denmark vs Wales that provides a useful VAR lesson. Neco Williams put the ball into the net, but the referee had already blown his whistle for a foul by Ethan Ampadu during the build-up.

This creates a very different situation from a normal disallowed goal. Once the referee blows the whistle, play is dead. Anything that happens afterwards is technically outside the continuation of the original phase. VAR cannot simply decide that the referee should not have blown and then award a goal scored after play had already been stopped.

This is exactly why referees are encouraged in certain situations to delay the whistle if there is a realistic possibility of an immediate goal-scoring opportunity.

VAR can correct many mistakes. It cannot recreate football that officially stopped when the whistle was blown.

So even if replays suggested the original foul call was soft, VAR would not be able to simply award Williams’ subsequent finish as a goal. That is an important distinction.

The VAR Verdict: Once the whistle had gone, the subsequent finish could not become a goal through VAR.

Norway 1-2 Portugal: Ramos denied a second goal

Norway vs Portugal produced one of Sunday’s most entertaining League A matches. João Félix gave Portugal the lead before Erling Haaland equalised shortly after half-time.

Only a few minutes later, Norway goalkeeper Ørjan Nyland made a costly error while attempting to play the ball out, allowing Gonçalo Ramos to take advantage and restore Portugal’s lead with an excellent finish.

Then came another important offside decision. Ramos thought he had scored again in the 58th minute after another difficult moment for the Norwegian defence. The goal was ruled out for offside. VAR confirmed the decision and Norway remained only one goal behind.

As with the disallowed Denmark goal, there is little room for philosophical debate here if the positional evidence confirms the attacker was offside. The fact Ramos benefited from a defensive or goalkeeping mistake also does not automatically reset offside. That depends on the nature of the opponent’s action and the phase in which the attacker became involved.

The officials ultimately ruled Ramos offside and the goal did not count.

The VAR Verdict: No clear evidence of an officiating error. Goal correctly disallowed on the available decision.

Portugal held on for a 2-1 win.

Germany 0-1 Greece: A quiet night for VAR

One of Sunday’s biggest sporting shocks produced relatively little refereeing controversy. Greece defeated Germany 1-0 in Augsburg, with substitute Dimitris Kourbelis scoring the decisive goal in the 74th minute. His strike took a deflection off Joshua Kimmich on its way into the net.

There was nothing in the scoring action requiring the goal to be cancelled. A defensive deflection does not by itself create an offence, and there was no significant attacking foul or offside issue identified in the decisive sequence.

English referee Chris Kavanagh therefore had a relatively quiet evening compared with some of his colleagues elsewhere in Europe. That is worth acknowledging. Not every match needs a VAR controversy. Sometimes the strongest refereeing performance is the one we barely have to discuss afterwards.

The VAR Verdict: No major clear refereeing controversy. Greece’s winning goal correctly stood.

Austria 3-1 Kosovo: Late penalty gives Kosovo consolation

Austria were already 3-0 ahead when Kosovo were awarded a penalty late in the match. Edon Zhegrova converted in the 83rd minute to reduce the deficit.

From the evidence available after the game, there is no strong basis for treating the penalty as one of Sunday’s controversial decisions. That is an important standard for post-match referee analysis.

A penalty appearing on a match timeline does not automatically make it controversial. Without clear evidence that the referee misinterpreted the contact or VAR incorrectly intervened, there is little value in inventing a debate.

Austria still won comfortably through goals from David Affengruber, Junior Adamu and Carney Chukwuemeka.

The VAR Verdict: No clear evidence of a major error surrounding Kosovo’s penalty.

Lithuania 1-1 Azerbaijan: Early penalty looked straightforward

Lithuania were awarded a penalty very early against Azerbaijan. The visitors lost possession before Gvidas Gineitis was brought down inside the penalty area.

The referee pointed to the spot and Armandas Kučys converted in the ninth minute. The decisive refereeing element is again the location and nature of the challenge. Once a punishable defensive foul occurs inside the defender’s penalty area while the ball is in play, the correct restart is a penalty.

Reports of the incident indicate this was not one of those extremely marginal VAR-created penalties where the referee initially saw normal contact and was later persuaded to change his decision. It was awarded on the field.

Azerbaijan equalised through Mahir Emreli five minutes later and the match finished 1-1.

The VAR Verdict: Penalty decision supportable and no obvious VAR controversy.

Israel 0-3 Republic of Ireland: Little work for VAR

Republic of Ireland produced one of Sunday’s most convincing results, scoring three times inside the opening 25 minutes. Troy Parrott opened the scoring, Adam Idah quickly made it 2-0 and Jack Moylan added a third.

Despite the rapid sequence of goals, there was no major refereeing or VAR controversy that materially changed the outcome. That should be considered a positive for the officiating team.

VAR performs best when checks are completed without becoming the story of the match.

The VAR Verdict: No major refereeing incident requiring deeper post-match intervention analysis.

Gibraltar 0-0 Andorra: Cards, but no major VAR drama

The goalless draw between Gibraltar and Andorra was more physical than spectacular. The match produced several yellow cards, including early cautions as the referee attempted to establish his disciplinary threshold.

But there was no major penalty, red-card or goal controversy around which a serious VAR debate developed.

For referees, early cautions can sometimes be necessary when repeated or reckless challenges threaten to change the temperature of a match. The important question is then consistency: once a threshold has been established, similar offences must be treated similarly.

Nothing from the match suggested a major VAR failure.

The VAR Verdict: No significant reviewable controversy.

What Sunday told us about VAR

The most interesting lesson from Sunday’s Nations League matches is actually that VAR was generally quiet and functional. There was no equivalent of a spectacular missed red card or an inexplicable penalty intervention dominating the entire evening.

Instead, most of the important decisions involved offsides and routine goal checks:

• Denmark’s disallowed first-half goal was an example of VAR correcting an offside before a goal.
• The Netherlands penalty in Serbia was an example of the original referee decision being supported.
• Ramos’ disallowed goal in Norway was another offside decision.
• Isaksen’s eventual goal for Denmark demonstrated that VAR checks do not automatically mean goals will be cancelled.

Perhaps the most educational moment came from the late Wales attack in Copenhagen. Once the referee had blown for the Ampadu foul, the subsequent finish could not simply be restored by VAR.

That highlights one of the system’s fundamental limitations: VAR can review a decision, but it cannot restore a phase of play that the referee has already ended.

The VAR Verdict: A relatively strong night for the officials

After several controversial incidents during the opening days of the Nations League, Sunday’s programme was comparatively clean. There were decisions supporters could discuss, but very few that can currently be labelled clear officiating errors.

The Netherlands penalty against Serbia was supportable. The major offside decisions in Denmark and Norway were correctly processed. Lithuania’s penalty had a clear basis. And the matches in Germany, Israel and Gibraltar passed without a major VAR controversy.

That may not produce the viral headlines that follow a spectacular refereeing mistake. But from an officiating perspective, that is exactly what UEFA should want.

VAR should correct identifiable errors, confirm correct decisions quickly and then disappear from the match. On Sunday, for the most part, that is what happened.

Overall referee verdict: A solid Nations League night for the officials, with the major reviewable incidents handled correctly on the available evidence.

Law references: IFAB Laws of the Game 2026/27, Law 11, Law 12 and VAR Protocol
Reviewed: September 28, 2026