Arne Slot ‘raging’ as ex-PGMOL chief admits to Michael Oliver mistake in Merseyside derby
Arne Slot was “raging” at Michael Oliver after Everton’s dramatic late equaliser in the Merseyside derby on Wednesday and an ex-PGMOL chief admits the referee made a mistake.
James Tarkowski scored deep into stoppage time, smashing a bouncing ball into the roof of the net to send the Goodison Park crowd wild in the last-ever derby in the historic stadium.
Abdoulaye Doucoure and Curtis Jones were both shown second yellow cards after the final whistle after Jones took issue with Doucoure for celebrating in front of the Liverpool fans.
READ MORE: Liverpool wheels fall off for Arne Slot as Everton do a Man Utd in glorious Merseyside derby
And Slot was shown a straight red by Oliver as he “raged” at the referee on the pitch, with Sky Sports journalist Lewis Jones explaining why the Liverpool boss was so angry.
“In the drama of it all, Liverpool are fuming at the decision not to award a foul from Beto for a push on Konate,” said Jones, as per the Sky Sports website.
“That’s why Arne Slot was raging at full-time and was shown a red card. It’s such a big moment for many, many reasons.”
The Premier League Match Centre, an X account which ‘provides information directly from Match Centre, the VAR Hub and PGMOL experts’ made no reference to the supposed foul, instead just confirming that Doucoure was onside in the build-up.
‘The referee’s call of goal was checked and confirmed by the VAR- who established that Doucouré was in an onside position in the build-up,’ the post stated.
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Liverpool fans will feel hard done by after that incident and quite possibly frustrated to have conceded the opener as well.
Beto finished off Jarrad Branthwaite’s expertly played through ball from a free-kick but replays of Ibrahima Konate’s foul on Iliman Ndiaye were far from conclusive.
Ndiaye went down theatrically despite there being little to no contact from the centre-back, and Keith Hackett, the former PGMOL chief and ex-FIFA official, believes Oliver shouldn’t have awarded the free-kick.
Speaking to Football Insider about the decision to award that set-piece to Everton, the former referee said:
“Liverpool were on the wrong end of a poor decision by Michael Oliver to award Everton a free kick which led to their first goal. There was no foul. Oliver got it wrong.”
