Liverpool 2-0 Everton: Merseyside derby shrouded in refereeing controversy

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Will Rooney reports from Anfield.

Transcript

00:00 Full time here at Anfield, Merseyside's Harvey, end of Liverpool 2, Everton 0.

00:04 Bragg and Wright firmly remain here at Anfield for Liverpool, but it was a game that was

00:09 awash with controversial refereeing decisions.

00:12 Referee Craig Pawson, that's an absolutely disastrous game to be quite frank.

00:18 First, talking about the action, I mean, the game was, Liverpool started well on the front

00:24 foot, probably looked like they were going to score and then Ashley Young gets sent off

00:31 for Everton, two yellow cards.

00:32 The first one was touch and go, thought it was fairly early on in the game, his first

00:36 foul in a derby, you probably don't give that, but the second one when Lewis Deer had skipped

00:40 past him on the edge of the box, Craig Pawson had no option but to give him a second yellow

00:45 card and dismiss the Everton right back.

00:48 So he put on the pressure for the rest of the first half, that was in the 37th minute,

00:52 he just couldn't find a breakthrough.

00:54 At half time, Sean Dyche brought on two defenders for his two wingers, he brought on Nathan

00:59 Patton and Michael Keane for Dwight McNeil and Jack Harrison looked to make it difficult

01:05 for Liverpool to break down and indeed he did.

01:07 Liverpool really struggled, despite having a numerical advantage, they couldn't really

01:11 create any guilt hedges.

01:13 And then midway through the second half, Everton thought that Ibrahim Kanata should have been

01:17 sent off because he was already on a booking and Beto, who had come on as a sub, got past

01:22 him, was breaking clear, Kanata holds him down, but referee Craig Pawson doesn't give

01:28 it.

01:29 Sean Dyche, the manager, was livid as you can understand and then soon afterwards Jürgen

01:34 Klopp substitutes Ibrahim Kanata.

01:38 Liverpool finally got the breakthrough, it was Lewis Deer who engineered it, he was Liverpool's

01:42 man of the match, he was the game changer to be quite frank obviously, resulting in Ashton

01:46 Young sending off and then engineering the penalty.

01:49 Put a cross into the box and Michael Keane's flailing arm hit, so literally Craig Pawson

01:55 didn't think it was a penalty but VAR intervened and indeed it was.

02:00 It was quite clear on the monitor that Michael Keane's arm was in an unnatural position as

02:05 it's deemed by the laws of today and Mo Salah stepped up.

02:07 Mo Salah had pretty poor games to be frank, even in his post-match press conference Jürgen

02:14 Klopp said it wasn't his best game but he kept his cool to fire past Jürgen Pickford

02:17 and it was Salah in the closing stages, in to stop his time, Liverpool broke on the counter-attack

02:22 and Nunez found Salah who finished it off.

02:26 It's a derby that weren't the best of football games but it'll just be remembered for the

02:30 refereeing decisions to be quite honest, it killed the game in terms of spoils.

02:34 There were some ones where for example James Tarkowski brought Jadon Jota down on the edge

02:39 of the box, right on the edge of the box but that didn't warrant a yellow card.

02:44 Costa Simacas brought down an Everton player, I think it was Jack Harrison in the first

02:49 half, he was already fired, similar to the one that Ashley Young was booked for the first

02:53 time, that wasn't given so it was just inconsistency really which you don't want that in derbies

02:58 to be honest, you want it to be a true fair game and everyone to, you know, the best of

03:03 teams come out and whoever's the best of team wins it but yeah as you say, the thrill over

03:09 the win, they moved top of the table for the meantime as we speak.

03:12 Everton, obviously after the international break they started with a defeat but they've

03:18 got a tough run of fixtures now, Everton still got West Ham next week and then Brighton a

03:22 week after that but Everton can take a bit of heart from the performance and resolve

03:26 the shows.

03:27 Liverpool now look towards a clash against Toulouse in the Europa League here on Thursday,

03:35 yeah overall not the most vintage of derbies that we remember for the controversial decisions

03:42 me through it into Liverpool 2, 7-0.

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