Liverpool narrowly beat Inter Milan on Tuesday night thanks to Dominik Szoboszlai’s second-half penalty, but a crucial VAR decision sparked a fierce backlash. The choice to award the Reds a spot-kick after they had won three points was branded a “scandal”. Florian Wirths took a theatrical fall after Alessandro Bastoni pulled his shirt inside the area.
While there was little debate about the Italian player’s contact, the German player’s reaction caused an even bigger controversy. The match initially continued, but VAR intervened and recalled the referee to review the incident on a pitchside monitor. After a discussion with both captains, the referee signaled for a penalty, and Szoboszlai scored the winning goal.
Former England manager Fabio Capello was appalled by the incident and suggested Wertz had committed a “clear simulation”.
“This is a scandalous penalty,” he said, according to Football Italia. “I don’t understand why VAR had to intervene when the referee saw everything and did the obvious simulation of throwing himself to the ground.”
Former Liverpool defender Stephen Warnock also backed Capello, telling BBC Radio 5 Live: “It’s a very soft penalty. Did they deserve that penalty? Probably not, but I don’t think the fans will care.”
Inter midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan was furious, telling Prime Video: “I don’t know how they came up with a penalty that doesn’t exist, but this is football. We’re not happy. If we give a penalty like this, every contact in the box is a penalty.”
Former referee Mark Clattenburg was similarly surprised by the decision. “It was a shirt tug. But with that shirt tug…the player then fell straight down,” he commented.
“You know, this is the crazy thing about VAR. As football people, we all agree that this is not a penalty. And now they’re going to give this as a penalty because he had his shirt pulled and it was played in slow motion.”
Even Liverpool defender Andy Robertson admitted it was “naive”, although he believed a foul would have been awarded elsewhere on the pitch.
The Scotland international was also disappointed that Ibrahima Konate’s handball shot was disallowed in the first half.
“It was a great result,” he said after the full-time whistle. “We knew we were in a tough spot against a team that was going through a good period. We needed to put up a fight and come back.
“The clean sheet was extremely important and then we went to score the goal. I think the handball for me took seven or eight minutes. If you’re going to do that, you have to stick to the decisions on the field. You have to stick to those decisions.”
“The penalty certainly looked soft, but it was given elsewhere on the pitch. We all needed it.
“We know that the results and performances were not good enough. It is important for this club to qualify for the Champions League. It was a big result for all of us.”
