Former Premier League referee Mark Clattenburg has dismissed Liverpool’s claims for a penalty against Paris Saint-Germain, despite Dominik Szoboszlai feeling he should have been awarded a spot-kick.

The Reds midfielder was left remonstrating with referee Istvan Kovacs late on in the first half after a challenge from Fabian Ruiz.

Szoboszlai went down just inside the penalty area as he looked to shield the ball from the PSG midfielder, with Ruiz’s attempt to get to the ball seeing him kick his counterpart in the back of the leg.

Despite Liverpool players’ protests, the referee decided against awarding the hosts a penalty, with VAR choosing not to intervene.

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It came after PSG had leveled the tie through Ousmane Dembele, who pounced on Ibrahima Konate’s attempt to cut out Bradley Barcola’s cross to tap the ball home

The goal left the tie last-16 encounter level at 1-1, with Liverpool having claimed a 1-0 win in Paris last week thanks to Harvey Elliott’s late winner.

The Reds had chances to extend their lead before Dembele’s goal, with Mohamed Salah going close on two occasions inside the opening 10 minutes at Anfield

Arne Slot’s men may also feel hard done by that they didn’t get the chance to retake the lead in the tie from the penalty spot, although Clattenburg didn’t feel they had much of a case.

Giving his verdict on Ruiz’s challenge on Szoboszlai, Clattenburg told Amazon Prime Video: “He does get a kick on the thigh but he waits one or two seconds, thinks about it and then goes down

That is what the referee and VAR have seen.”

Liverpool.com says: We might be biased, but Ruiz certainly doesn’t get any of the ball, and all he succeeds in doing is kicking Szoboszlai in the back of the legs