Marco Veratti escaped a straight red card after a high and reckless challenge on Liverpool's Joe Gomez, however the Italian escaped with just a yellow card.
The highly regarded referee praised Gomez for not overreacting, however believes that Veratti should have seen a straight red card.
"The PSG midfielder went into the challenge at speed and, with studs showing, caught Gomez high on the leg but referee Szymon Marciniak only showed a yellow card", Clattenburg told the 'Daily Mail'.
"What saved Verratti was the Liverpool defender's reaction.
"Plenty of players would roll around to try to persuade the referee to show a red card, but Gomez did not overreact", he said.
Clattenburg, who also gives insight to 'BT Sport', also agreed with the referee's decision to award Liverpool a penalty.
"People say that the officials standing behind the goals do nothing but that was not the case on Wednesday night.
"It was an excellent decision by the additional assistant to tell Marciniak to award a penalty.
"Marciniak initially gave a Liverpool corner but was absolutely correct to change his mind", he added.