SLOT SEEING RED Liverpool's Dutch manager Arne Slot was not a happy man during the English League Cup semi-final first leg football match against Tottenham Hotspur at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, on January 8, 2025. Picture: Justin Tallis/AFP
Image: Justin Tallis/AFP
An irate Liverpool coach Arne Slot struggled to understand a refereeing decision which directly led to his side’s League Cup defeat to Tottenham Hotspur, in London, on Wednesday evening.
The only goal of the first-leg semi-final came in the 86th minute when Lucas Bergvall struck for the hosts.
In the lead-up to the goal, the 18-year-old Bergvall, however, tripped Liverpool’s Kostas Tsimikas when referee Stuart Attwell waved play-on to give the visitors the advantage. Liverpool soon lost the ball and Spurs raced away with the ball and subsequently scored the decisive goal.
Had Attwell stopped play for the challenge, Bergvall would have likely received a second yellow card and Liverpool a free kick.
"The decision made had a lot of impact on the result tonight,” said Slot.
"The fourth official told me why he thought it wasn't a second yellow and he heard that probably from the referee.
"What we can say about it is that he said he didn't stop the counter-attack, every manager would say they prefer the second yellow than a free-kick.
Slot attempted to explain why he thought the referee made the contentious decision.
"Spurs weren't happy with a few decisions that happened (against Newcastle) on Sunday. Maybe today a decision went in favour of them, which is of course very unlucky for us.”
Meanwhile, Spurs coach Ange Postecoglou saw the incident quite differently when asked if Bergvall was lucky to not receive a second booking.
"Great question, no he wasn’t,” said Postecoglou.
"It's happened to us consistently, you look at our games, and we've asked the officials and they've said if you play advantage, as long as it's not a cynical tackle, then yellow card doesn't get shown. Now to me, that was pretty clear."