Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has said Saturday’s match against Tottenham at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium should be replayed after a VAR blunder denied the Reds a legitimate goal.
Down to 10 men at the time after Curtis Jones’ yellow card was upgraded to a red, after a VAR intervention, Liverpool striker Luis Diaz scored what could have been the opening goal of the match.
However, after a quick VAR check, the goal was ruled out for offside and the match restarted, but replays clearly showed the Tottenham defender Cristian Romero played Díaz onside.
The Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) on Tuesday released the full audio from the VAR centre.
Speaking to the media on Wednesday ahead of the visit of Union SG in the Europa League, Klopp said he is not “angry” with what occurred but wants a replay. Here is what he said, according to This is Anfield:
The audio didn’t change it at all, I wasn’t interested in why things happen because I knew, I saw the outcome – we scored and it didn’t count.
I wasn’t waiting for the audio and sitting there hoping I could find out how it happened or whatever.
What I want to say is that it’s really important, as big and important as football is, that we really deal with it in a proper way.
I mean all the people involved, the on-field ref, linesman, fourth official and especially VAR, did not do that on purpose.
We should not forget that. It was a mistake, an obvious mistake, and I think there would have been solutions for it afterwards.
I can say immediately, and some people won’t want me to say, not as a manager of Liverpool, more as a football person, the only outcome should be a replay. That’s how it is.
Probably will not happen, the argument against that is if we open that gate, everybody will ask for it.
I think the situation is that unprecedented that, it didn’t happen before, I’m 56 years old and since 50 years in football and I don’t always deal well with it, but I’m used to wrong decisions.
Something like that, as far as I can remember, never happened. That’s why I think a replay would be the right thing.
Against the argument, if it happened again I think a replay would be the right thing to do.
Or, the referee has the opportunity to bring the coaches together and say, ‘We made a mistake, but we can sort it. Let Liverpool score a goal and we start from there.’
What makes it a bit more special is that we conceded two minutes after we scored a regular goal.
How all things depend on each other, if the goal would’ve counted the ball would’ve started in the middle of the pitch. It would’ve been different.
That’s my view on it, I’m not angry with any of them. Not at all.
It’s not allowed to go for them, they made a mistake and they felt horrible that night, I’m 100 percent sure. No one needs further punishment.
What made this day really difficult for us, was all the other decisions.
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