Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk had a heated exchange with PSG chief Luis Campos in the tunnel during half-time at Parc des Princes on Wednesday night.
As both teams headed back to the dressing rooms, PSG were irate with Italian referee Davide Massa for not sending off Ibrahima Konate. The incident involved Konate seemingly nudging Bradley Barcola while trying to reach a long ball, leading to Barcola falling and alleging he was pushed from behind by his international teammate.
Despite this, Referee Massa overlooked the incident, even after a VAR review, allowing the game to proceed much to Konate and Liverpool’s relief. However, PSG Football Advisor Campos, who has been recently linked with Arsenal, vociferously criticized the officials during the break, shouting: “It’s a red card or a penalty, in every part of the world,” as captured by Canal Plus footage.
In response, Liverpool’s stalwart skipper Van Dijk retorted: “Come on, this is not Ligue 1 brother.”
Yet, this did nothing to pacify Campos who continued to yell: “Red card or penalty, in every part of football!”.
TNT Sports pundits Ally McCoist and Rio Ferdinand weighed in on the incident involving Konate, with Ferdinand remarking during the broadcast: “That is a foul. I think it might just be outside the box. If that is not a red card I will be amazed. It will be a shame if it does go down to 10 against 11 in that sense because you want the best players playing each other equally in the 90 minutes.”
PSG’s Vitinha, while reflecting on the game, chose not to dwell on the contentious call, saying: “The foul on Barcola? It was difficult to see. I can’t talk without seeing it and we’re not going to hide behind that.”
(Image: Getty Images)
Konate himself firmly denied any wrongdoing in his interaction with Barcola, telling French TV: “There was a VAR check. If there was a push, like you said, I would have been shown a red card.
“I’m telling you that there wasn’t a foul. It’s true that I am very strong but I don’t apply power, I just put my arm. If I had put a lot more power into it then we could talk about it but it was soft for me.”
In a thrilling turn of events, Harvey Elliott’s late goal, scored less than a minute after he came on, secured a vital 1-0 advantage for Liverpool ahead of the highly anticipated second-leg decider at Anfield.
