To be honest, I thought he'd leathered it knowing the offside had already been given when it was in play, but having watched the replay it all did happen quite quickly. It was a pretty harsh decision, but then he could've been sent off in the first half for raising his hands - perhaps the ref saw that at HT and figured he'd even things out?
Either way, I think Arsenal can't complain *too* much. Barca weren't given a definite pen in the first half and as already said, a harsher view on RVP's hand to the face could've resulted in a red card earlier.
Villa was quite poor and frustrating by his standards. He squandered so many openings. But then, so did the whole Barca side. The result of this tie never should've been in question over the two legs, but they almost contrived to put themselves out of the competition. That gift to Bender at the end was just absurd... had to laugh though.