Even Gary Neville sympathised with Liverpool over controversial refereeing decision at the Etihad
When Gary Neville is claiming that Liverpool have been hard done by over a refereeing decision, then you know it’s bad.
Chris Kavanagh and his team of officials were busy during the first half at the Etihad Stadium, with the first big call of the evening coming after just 10 minutes as Manchester City were awarded a penalty for an alleged foul on Jeremy Doku, a decision with which Virgil van Dijk visibly disagreed.
Later, with the home side 1-0 to the good, the Reds captain though he’d summoned an equaliser when he headed a corner kick to the net, only for the assistant referee to flag for an offside.
Andy Robertson was ahead of the last defender and deemed to have been active in the play, despite being nowhere near impeding the view of City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.
Neville spotted an angry reaction from Arne Slot in the technical area and sympathised with the Liverpool head coach, saying on co-commentary for Sky Sports: “I think he is outside the eyeline of the goalkeeper. I think Slot is right to be fuming. The goalkeeper is not getting anywhere near that. He had a clear line of sight.”
There is absolutely no love lost between the Reds and the ex-Manchester United defender, as we know from the past, but he’s bang-on with his verdict on the decision to disallow Van Dijk’s goal.
The officials had two big decisions to make in the first half and both were harshly given against Liverpool (the second was particularly galling), and both Man City goals were somewhat aided by deflections off LFC defenders.
Luck has been completely absent for the Reds prior to half-time, although there’s no disputing that the home side were by far the better team on the overall balance of play.
Roy Keane argued on Sky Sports that Robertson should’ve gotten out of an offside position quicker, but Neville is right in stating that the Scottish left-back wasn’t impeding Donnarumma’s view in the slightest.
Slot will no doubt have plenty to say on that decision in particular after full-time, but he’ll also know that his team need to be far better in the second half if they’re to rescue anything from this game.
