Former Premier League referee Mark Clattenburg has claimed that VAR was wrong to deny Liverpool a late penalty against Manchester City on Sunday afternoon.
The showdown between Jurgen Klopp’s and Pep Guardiola’s juggernauts was hyped as a potential title decider, and while the draw leaves that question open, both teams played out a thrilling game at Anfield. City dominated the first half, with John Stones’ close-range shot putting them ahead.
However, the Reds fought and levelled inside two minutes of the second half when Alexis MacAllister converted a penalty after Darwin Nunez was fouled by Ederson. Liverpool kept pressing and felt they should have got another penalty deep in stoppage time when Jeremy Doku caught Mac Allister with a high boot.
Referee Michael Oliver did not award a penalty, but after a check, VAR informed him that Doku had played the ball. Klopp protested this judgement at full-time, claiming that all football fans knew it was a penalty kick.
In his Daily Mail essay, Clattenburg, who is currently a referee advisor for Nottingham Forest, chastised VAR for failing to award Liverpool a penalty late on. “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,” he said in a blog post.
“The ball bounces upward. Alexis Mac Allister approaches it. Jeremy Doku’s foot is high. “He strikes Mac Allister in the chest.”Outside the box, this would have resulted in a free kick every day of the week. Just because it happened inside the box doesn’t mean it’s a clean challenge when Mac Allister is left playing connect the dots on his chest Monday morning.
“Referee Michael Oliver missed it in real time at the end of a tiring and exciting match, so it was up to VAR Stuart Attwell to intercede. This is where the dissatisfaction resides; we’ve seen similar occurrences this weekend where Stockley Park should have informed their teammates on the pitch that they had missed a penalty or received a red card but did not.”
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