Manchester City felt aggrieved to not be awarded a penalty during the first half against Liverpool when Phil Foden stumbled to the floor after contact from James Milner.
The incident occurred just past the half-hour mark when Foden latched onto a through ball behind Liverpool’s back four and advanced towards goal.
As Foden progressed into the area, his heel was clipped by Milner, who was filling in for the injured Trent Alexander-Arnold at right-back.
Despite the protestations of Foden, his teammates and Pep Guardiola, referee Paul Tierney was unmoved and waved for play to continue.
The initial contact was made outside of the penalty area, but Milner appeared to catch Foden for a second time once he was inside the box. Perhaps the reason the VAR (Video Assistant Referee) did not intervene is that the initial contact was made outside the area – VAR officials can only have input for goals, penalty decisions and direct red cards.
“It was clumsy – but it was out of the box to start with,” said Gary Neville on commentary. “It was definitely a foul. There’s a little clip of his heel.”
He added: “It’s one of those where Foden tries to go past the challenge and goes down thinking ‘well I have to go down to get a penalty’.”
A constant struggle
Foden was certainly winning the individual battle with Milner, who struggled to cope with the youngster’s pace and energy.
“Milner does need more help,” said Jamie Carragher at half-time. “He’s had the yellow card as well so it’ll be interesting to see if Klopp changes him at half-time. He’s found it tough, as you would do against Manchester City.
“When we talk about both squads, this is the one real area where there’s no back-up for Liverpool. Trent misses out and you’ve got a 35-year-old midfielder playing at right-back.
“It’s shown a little bit today in that area.”
Jurgen Klopp opted to keep Milner on, but he would have been relieved to see the 35-year-old avoid a second booking for a cynical foul on Bernardo Silva midway through the second half.
Shortly after, Klopp replaced Milner with Joe Gomez.
Pep Guardiola was absolutely furious at the decision and remonstrated animatedly with the fourth official Mike Dean. Guardiola’s sense of injustice was exacerbated a few minutes later when Mo Salah scored a wonderful solo goal a few minutes later and he was cautioned after restarting his protestations.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3A7NXG3
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