UCL | Inter 0-1 Liverpool: VAR hero and villain in painful loss | OneFootball

VAR was decisive at San Siro, as Liverpool had a goal disallowed for handball, but Inter suffered defeat to a painfully cheap late Dominik Szoboszlai penalty.

The Nerazzurri had won the first four games before their last-gasp defeat to Atletico Madrid and were missing Denzel Dumfries and Matteo Darmian, but Henrikh Mkhitaryan returned for his first start since late October. The Reds were in crisis after Mohamed Salah lashed out at Arne Slot, so was left behind along with ill Federico Chiesa, injured Cody Gakpo, Wataru Endo, Giovanni Leoni and Jeremie Frimpong. They surprisingly dropped Florian Wirtz.

See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.

MILAN, ITALY – DECEMBER 09: Arne Slot, Manager of Liverpool, and Cristian Chivu, Head Coach of FC Internazionale Milano, embrace prior to the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 League Phase MD6 match between FC Internazionale Milano and Liverpool FC at Stadio San Siro on December 09, 2025 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

It was the worst start for Cristian Chivu, because Hakan Calhanoglu lasted only 11 minutes before hobbling off with an adductor issue, replaced by Piotr Zielinski.

Liverpool tried to take advantage with two chances in 60 seconds, as Yann Sommer was at full stretch to fingertip away the Curtis Jones daisy-cutter, then parried a Ryan Gravenberch strike.

Sommer had his gloves stung by Hugo Ekitike at the near post, but disaster struck again when Francesco Acerbi went down injured running after him and had to be replaced by Yann Bisseck.

On the resulting corner, Liverpool thought they had opened the scoring when Virgil van Dijk nodded down the Domink Szoboszlai set play for Ibrahim Konate’s header from point-blank range. There was a very long VAR check for Ekitike handball, which eventually saw the referee disallow it.

MILAN, ITALY – DECEMBER 09: Ibrahima Konate’ of Liverpool FC scores a disallowed goal during the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 League Phase MD6 match between FC Internazionale Milano and Liverpool FC at Stadio San Siro on December 09, 2025 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Marco Luzzani/Getty Images)

Bisseck responded immediately, surging forward for a shot deflected wide off Van Dijk’s arm, but immediately shrugged off by VAR, then Nicolò Barella’s ferocious free kick skimmed the near top corner.

Zielinski also blasted off target and Alisson Becker was forced into a desperate save on the Lautaro Martinez glancing header on Alessandro Bastoni’s cross during seven minutes of first half stoppages.

Bastoni also risked an own goal with his tricky clearance to stop Mac Allister tapping in the Robertson cross.

MILAN, ITALY – DECEMBER 09: Lautaro Martinez of FC Internazionale competes for the ball with Virgil van Dijk of Liverpool FC during the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 League Phase MD6 match between FC Internazionale Milano and Liverpool FC at Stadio San Siro on December 09, 2025 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Marco Luzzani/Getty Images)

Lautaro Martinez hesitated when receiving from Barella and his shot was charged down by Van Dijk, while Ekitike’s scorcher was straight at Sommer.

Marcus Thuram bent his finish wide, while Conor Bradley came off the bench and immediately set up Ekitike for a shot charged down.

MILAN, ITALY – DECEMBER 09: Marcus Thuram of FC Internazionale competes for the ball with Hugo Ekitike’ of Liverpool FC during the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 League Phase MD6 match between FC Internazionale Milano and Liverpool FC at Stadio San Siro on December 09, 2025 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Marco Luzzani/Getty Images)

Bradley also tested Sommer at the near post from a tricky angle, but VAR was involved again late on to award a penalty for Bastoni’s lightest of shirt tugs on Wirtz, who flailed around dramatically. It allowed Dominik Szoboszlai to fire a powerful spot-kick past Sommer into the roof of the net.

Szoboszlai pen 88 (L)