MARK CLATTENBURG: Liverpool should have been awarded a stoppage-time penalty
Liverpool should have been awarded a stoppage-time penalty against Manchester City but this is the problem in the Premier League right now – referees are making mistakes in matches and not being helped by their VARs.
The ball bounces up. Alexis Mac Allister moves towards it. Jeremy Doku’s foot is high. He catches Mac Allister in the chest.
Outside of the box, this would have resulted in a free-kick, every day of the week. Just because it happened inside the box does not suddenly transform it into a clean challenge when Mac Allister might be left playing connect the dots on his chest on Monday morning.
Regardless of the magnitude of the match and the fact it happened in the 98th minute, this was an incident worthy of a penalty.
Referee Michael Oliver missed it in real time at the end of an exhausting and exhilarating contest and so it was on VAR Stuart Attwell to intervene.
This is where the frustration lies – we have seen similar incidents this weekend where Stockley Park should have told their colleagues on the ground that they had missed a penalty or a red card but didn’t.
You only needed to watch Match of the Day 2 to see how other matches were let down by decisions. Everybody could see this was a penalty for Liverpool.
Except VAR, that is, and it is that official's opinion who matters most in this major moments of matches.
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