Spain face Germany in the final of the UEFA under 21 European Championship, held in Udine.

The Spanish are hoping to secure a fifth title, their most recent coming in 2013, which would put them level with Italy as the most successful nation in the competition's history.

Germany, on the other hand, are hoping for their third, with both previous victories coming in the past 10 years.

But despite the lesser history, Germany do have the tournament's record-breaking top scorer to call on: Luca Waldschmidt.

Waldschmidt has scored seven times in just four games, making him the top scorer ever in the under 21 Euros.

And 34 minutes into the final, Waldschmidt was involved in a very controversial incident thanks to a challenge by Spain captain Jesus Vallejo.

As the German number 10 ran towards a knee-height ball, Vallejo tried to get there first with a studs-up challenge.

Waldschmidt knocked it past him, however, and Vallejo subsequently caught him very high, in the shin, with full force.

It was a very, very nasty challenge.

You can check it out below:

But the Spain captain was only shown a yellow card by the referee - shocking enough on its own, but what made it all the worse was that VAR wasn't consulted.

For such a terrible tackle, surely someone should have alerted the referee and seen Vallejo sent off?

Instead, he led his team off at half-time with a 1-0 lead, thanks to Fabian Ruiz's fantastic goal.

No matter the outcome of the final, this isn't a good look for VAR - and we seem to be saying that a lot lately.

But as it happened, Spain and Vallejo did end up lifting the trophy.

A 69th-minute goal by Daniel Olmo proved to be the winner, with Nadiem Amiri scoring a consolation two minutes from time to at least give the Germans a chance.

They'll surely look back and wonder what might have happened if they'd played against 10 in the second half.

It would have been a very different game.