Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp described the Premier League defeat to Spurs as a match with the “most unfair situations and craziest decisions” he had ever seen.
It was a controversial afternoon in north London, to say the least. Liverpool striker Luis Díaz thought he had opened the scoring in the 33rd minute when he beat goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario.
But the assistant raised the flag and the goal was ruled out – a decision that raised eyebrows after Spurs defender Cristian Romero played Diaz with his legs outstretched.
“He had at least a yard on the field,” Andy Gray said in his halftime analysis for beiN Sports. “It’s not even close.”
At half-time, Sky Sports said they had not received offside footage of Diaz’s disallowed goal.
Speaking to Sky Sports after the final whistle, a frustrated Jurgen Klopp made his feelings clear about the offside decision.
“Offside goal. You see it’s not offside, they drew the line very badly,” said the German player.
“The ball is between Mo’s legs, they drew the line wrong and didn’t judge the moment when Mo passed the ball right. It is so tough to deal with it.”
Klopp would also comment on the outcome of Saturday game and, even though he admitted to being “proud” of his team’s performance, he was far from happy with the decision-making.
He did, of course, mention referee Simon Hooper’s decision to dismiss Curtis Jones in the first-half.
“I never saw a game like this with the most unfair circumstances, crazy decisions,” he said.
“The first red card, Curtis steps on the ball and goes over. Not a bad tackle. It looks different in slow motion. He steps full throttle on the ball and goes over the ball. That is unlucky.
“[For Diogo Jota] first yellow was not a yellow. Then he gets a second and to defend with nine players is tricky. You want to build something you need players with mentality and I saw them today, they fought. Pretty special tonight.”
Klopp also spoke about Joel Matip’s unfortunate own goal in the 95th minute. “Today Joël defended very well. He stuck his foot out and went into the goal. There are worse things in life . That’s the way it is,” he said. Since Klopp’s interview with Sky Sports, PGMOL – the body responsible for Premier League referees – has admitted that the decision not to recognize Diaz’s goal was a mistake.
A statement read:
“PGMOL admits that a serious human error occurred in the first half of the match between Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool.
“Luis Diaz’s goal was ruled offside by the on-field referee team. This was a clear factual error and should have resulted in the goal being recognized through VAR intervention, however, VAR did not intervene.
“PGMOL will conduct a full review into the circumstances which led to the error. PGMOL will immediately be contacting Liverpool at the conclusion of the fixture to acknowledge the error.”
