Image: The penalty incident not awarded despite Liverpool star being throttled - Did VAR get it right?

Referee Szymon Marciniak refused to give Mohamed Salah a penalty against Villarreal on Wednesday evening.

Liverpool took a massive step towards booking their place in the Champions League final in Paris by beating Unai Emery's side 2-0 at Anfield.

An own goal and a Sadio Mane strike were enough to see off the competition from a side that, frankly speaking, seemed to take a leaf out of Everton's playbook.

And that might be offensive to Everton as the Blues at least had several opportunities to score at the weekend but Villarreal had one shot all game and it was off target.

Despite Frank Lampard making an absurd claim after the Merseyside Derby that Mohamed Salah is the only player to get soft penalties at Anfield, the Reds weren't given a deserved spot-kick last night.

The Egyptian was essentially choke-slammed by Pau Torres with no attempt to play the ball but referee Szymon Marciniak deemed it a fair challenge.

VAR also refused to get involved but fortunately, the no.11 was able to assist Sadio Mane for the Senegal star's goal to hand Liverpool a healthy lead heading into the return leg in Spain.