Former Tottenham defender Jan Vertonghen has joked that he would be willing to participate in a replay of the 2019 Champions League against Liverpool in Madrid. The comments come after Reds manager Jurgen Klopp demanded a replay of last weekend’s match between the Merseyside outfit and Spurs, prompting conversations about other fixtures that potentially warranted the same treatment.
Liverpool were beaten 2-1 by Tottenham on Sunday afternoon in a match full to the brim with controversy, with the Anfield outfit finishing the match with nine men after two controversial red cards that on another day would have been key talking points. Instead, Luis Diaz having a goal wrongly disallowed for offside is Liverpool’s main source of frustration.
The winger winger appeared to give his side a shock lead before the linesman ruled him offside, though replays showed that Cristian Romeo actually played him on. VAR reviewed the incident and approved of the decision, with Darren England and Dan Cook believing that the goal had been given by the on-field officials rather than ruled out. PGMOL have since apologised for the incident but Klopp is still enraged, calling for the game to be replayed.
The German admitted that it is unlikely that he would be granted his wish due to other clubs demanding other matches were reviewed. Spurs supporters have responded by reminding the ex-Dortmund boss of the nature of their 2019 Champions League final defeat, when Liverpool were awarded a penalty within a minute of the match when Moussa Sissoko was harshly adjudged to have handled the ball inside the penalty area, and the resulting spot kick was scored by Mohamed Salah to set the tone in the 2-0 loss.
Tottenham X account @thespursweb tweeted: “If the Liverpool match gets replayed it’ll set a huge precedent. See you in Madrid, Jurgen.” Vertonghen, who played in the match, fuelled the fire by quoting the tweet with his own caption.
The Belgian international wrote: “Count me in!”, much to the annoyance of Liverpool fans. Plenty of supporters replied, prompting Vertonghen to tweet out a fishing hook emoji along with laughing faces to imply that many had taken his bait. However, his comments certainly sparked a wider discussion about how unrealistic replaying previous games would be given that the VAR call proved decisive in Madrid as Spurs never truly figured after going behind so early in the match – with Divock Origi putting the game to bed late on.
