Rio Ferdinand was left in disbelief after Ibrahima Konate was not sent off for a questionable push on Bradley Barcola.
Liverpool faced Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg of the Champions League last 16 clash at the Parc des Princes on Wednesday. The second leg will take place at Anfield next Tuesday, with the winner facing either Club Brugge in Aston Villa in the quarterfinals.
PSG made an electric start to Wednesday’s game, with Khvicha Kvaratskhelia seeing a goal disallowed for a narrow offside. Barcola then went clean through on goal before hitting the deck under pressure from Konate, leading to penalty appeals from PSG.
Konate made contact with Barcola around the edge of the box, but referee Davide Massa didn’t believe the defender make enough contact to foul his opponent. A foul would’ve resulted in Konate receiving a red card due to Barcola being clean through on goal.
The game was soon brought to a halt while Aleandro Di Paolo, the video assistant referee, reviewed the decision. And former Manchester United captain Ferdinand expected a red card to produced. “That is a foul,” Ferdinand said on TNT Sports. “The push is in the back, so it’s a foul. If that’s not a red card I’ll be amazed.”
Yet Di Paolo didn’t overturn Massa’s initial decision. Former Liverpool defender Stephen Warnock said on BBC Radio 5 Live in reaction to the decision: “It goes in the filing cabinet of, ‘I’ve seen them given.’ I would feel annoyed if I was a PSG player.”
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Ferdinand then added at halftime: “I can’t believe how lucky Liverpool have been there. If Barcola and Konate were shoulder to shoulder then I get it. But Konate barges him basically on the numbers on his back, between his shoulder blades.”]
Despite PSG’s superb start to the game, it remained goalless at halftime. Kvaratskhelia thought he had opened the scoring early on after finding the net, but his left heel was judged to be offside. Rangers legend Ally McCoist was left in disbelief.
“What a break that is,” McCoist told TNT Sports. “We knew it was tight. It is almost criminal to disallow that, it was such a good finish. But if it’s offside, it’s offside.”
“Khvicha Kvaratskhelia must have strayed offside,” Warnock added. “Liverpool get away with one.”
Allison also produced two outstanding saves to deny Ousmane Dembele and Kvaratskhelia. “Alisson is probably the best goalkeeper in the world in one-v-one situations,” continued Warnock. “Alisson is so quick to narrow the angle. Magnificent from Alisson.”
McCoist, meanwhile, was very impressed by PSG’s first half. He said: “What a first half PSG have had. They have been dynamic, powerful, exuberant and skillful. I know Liverpool have had two defeats against Nottingham Forest and Plymouth Argyle but I would suggest this has been the toughest 45 minutes have played all season.”
And former Liverpool winger Steve McManaman had a warning for the Reds on TNT Sports. He said: “Liverpool are living on the edge. They are living very, very dangerously. If you wanted a warning they’ve had 45 minutes of it. They kept on going backwards with the ball, safe pass after safe pass. You can’t do that away at PSG because they are going to keep on moving forward. Liverpool need a reboot and to start again.”
