Cape Town - UEFA has confirmed that the decision to award Manchester United a late controversial penalty after a VAR review was correct and in full compliance with VAR protocol.

Marcus Rashford scored a stoppage-time penalty to give Manchester United a stunning 3-1 win away to Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday as they improbably went through to the Champions League quarter-finals on away goals.

UEFA explained the process that was undertaken in making the call that left fans split on whether a penalty should have been awarded.

"The VAR, after checking various different angles available to him, recommended to the referee an on-field review following the penalty area incident, UEFA said on its website.

"Given that the referee did not recognise the incident clearly during live play (referred to as serious missed incident in the VAR protocol) an on-field review was conducted.

"Following the on-field review, the referee confirmed that the distance that the ball travelled was not short and the impact could therefore not be unexpected.

"The defender’s arm was not close to the body, which made the defender’s body bigger thus resulting in the ball being stopped from travelling in the direction of the goal. The referee, therefore, awarded a penalty kick. 

"All the above-mentioned decisions were made in full compliance with the VAR protocol."