10 hours ago
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Liverpool has been told that a Brighton player should have been sent off during Saturday's Premier League game at Anfield.
Brighton forward Diego Gomez was shown a yellow card in first-half injury time for an extremely high challenge on Liverpool star Florian Wirtz, connecting with the German's chest with his studs.
There was a VAR review, but the referee's original decision to caution Gomez was upheld. The Premier League gave the following explanation for the decision during the game: "The referee’s call of yellow card to Gomez was checked and confirmed by VAR – with the challenge on Wirtz deemed not to be with excessive force and not serious foul play."
That explanation made little sense at the time, and several ex-referees have since had their say on the matter, suggesting that the wrong decision was made, and that Gomez should have been given his marching orders.
Former Premier League referee Keith Hackett was among the critics of the decision, telling Football Insider: "The Brighton player had every opportunity to pull out of this foul, and there is no question that the boot was leading at pace, waist-high, and fulfilled, in my opinion, serious foul play.
"The yellow card for this challenge was insufficient, and this incident should have seen the intervention of VAR, and a second look for the referee, who may, from his view, have had his vision of the incident compromised by the offending player."
Hackett was not the only one who believed the wrong call was made in the moment. Speaking on Sky Sports' Soccer Saturday, pundit Tim Sherwood stated: "I think it's a red card, I honestly do. I just think Wirtz wins it before him, he knows it. He's not even there to go and win the ball."
He was followed up by former Premier League referee Mike Dean, who added: "I think it's red. The ball's gone up...The only thing I would say that they might look at is as he's gone up to come down, he may have caught him on the way down.
"There's no real force in it, but his foot shouldn't be that high. He's caught him in the stomach then he's kind of come down into his body. So, for me, it's more red than yellow."
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