Liverpool suffered heartbreak in a dramatic match in north London with Tottenham which featured controversial VAR calls, two red cards and a late own goal. Liverpool had Curtis Jones and Diogo Jota sent off with Jurgen Klopp’s side battling to hold on for a point in the final stages, only for Joel Matip’s own goal in the final seconds to hand Tottenham all three points. Express Sport picks out four main talking points from the north London match.
Liverpool’s VAR woes
VAR will be in the spotlight once again for the incident in the first half. Why weren’t lines drawn for Luis Diaz’s supposed offside goal? It seemed incredibly quick that a decision from VAR was made that Diaz was offside, but replays appeared to show Cristian Romero’s boot keeping him on.
There won’t be as much grievances over Curtis Jones’ red card, although it could be deemed unlucky for the midfielder after his foot appeared to slip over the ball. It’s not the first game against Tottenham where Liverpool have felt hard done by from officials and VAR.
Klopp was furious back in December 2021 in what provd to be a controversial 2-2 draw between the two sides and the Liverpool boss had to apologise in the aftermath for his angry outburst.
Klopp unimpressed by Jota
The other big incident in this match came late in the second half when Diogo Jota was shown his second yellow in quick succession. More telling though was Klopp’s reaction on the sidelines as he didn’t appear to try and fight the decision, suggesting his disproval at Jota’s tackle.
The Portuguese star could argue his first yellow was harsh, but his second was undeniable and the kind of tackle you just can’t make while on a booking. With 10 men, Liverpool were still in with a chance of taking all three points. But with nine men they were left battling to hang on with 15 minutes remaining and it proved costly in the end.
