Liverpool head coach Jurgen Klopp believes that his side should be granted a replay of their Premier League defeat to Tottenham Hotspur following Luis Diaz's incorrectly disallowed goal.
The Reds travelled to the English capital on Saturday evening aiming to prolong their 19-game unbeaten record and seven-game winning run, but they were put to the sword in the cruellest of circumstances.
Only two minutes before Son Heung-min's opener, Diaz latched onto Mohamed Salah's through ball and finished across goal, but the linesman raised his flag to signal offside before the VAR room looked at the incident.
The linesman's decision was upheld, but replays showed that Cristian Romero was clearly playing Diaz onside, and the PGMOL admitted to a "significant human error" after Joel Matip's last-gasp own goal handed Tottenham all three points.
The refereeing body then released audio footage of the officials' conversations, which includes VAR Darren England immediately telling referee Simon Hooper "check complete" after drawing the lines on Romero's boot, having believed that the goal was given on the field.
© Reuters
England is quickly made aware that the offside flag had gone up, but play had already restarted from a Tottenham free kick, leading to the VAR official to state that he cannot do anything.
Before the audio was published, Liverpool announced that they would explore a wide range of options to resolve the situation, and there have been murmurings of an unprecedented replay.
It is unclear whether Liverpool as a club are pushing for the game to be played again, and Klopp does not expect such an outcome to occur, but the German believes that it would be the right thing to do.
"The audio didn't change it at all because I was not really interested in why things happen," Klopp told a press conference ahead of Thursday's Europa League clash with Union SG.
"I saw the outcome, I saw a goal, and I saw it didn't count. It's really important that we deal with it in a proper way. They [the match officials] didn't do it on purpose and we shouldn't forget that.
© Reuters
"Yes, it was a mistake. An obvious mistake. I think there would have been solutions. I think the outcome should be a replay. Probably won't happen. As far as I can remember, something like that never happened, that's why I think a replay should be played."
However, the Reds boss implored incensed fans not to go after the officials, adding: "I'm not angry with any of them, not at all. We should not go for them. They made a mistake and I'm sure they felt horrible that night."
Curtis Jones and Diogo Jota were also sent off on a disastrous North London evening for Liverpool, who lost Cody Gakpo to an injury immediately after the Dutchman had levelled the scores on the cusp of half time.
Gakpo sustained the injury in a tackle from Destiny Udogie and has been ruled out of the visit of Union SG by Klopp, who added: "He was injured before he scored the goal. No [he won't be available]."
Stefan Bajcetic (calf) and Thiago Alcantara (hip) are also on the sidelines for Liverpool, but Jones and Jota are available for Thursday's game before they serve three-game and one-game domestic bans respectively.
No Data Analysis info
