Gary Lineker has suggested Liverpool could easily have been awarded a penalty kick during the Carabao Cup final against Newcastle United this weekend when the scoreline was still 0-0.
As Luis Diaz tried to beat Kieran Trippier inside the penalty area, the ball flicked onto the hand of the former England right-back. However, it was deemed that the action was not deliberate and it was a normal movement of the arm that lead to the ball touching his hand, hence the non-penalty decision.
“The thing was, his hand was away from his body,” Lineker said on The Rest Is Football podcast. “I think if they give penalties for that sort of thing, it’s ludicrous, but they do. But they do.
“We saw in the Champions League final when Tottenham played Liverpool in that first minute and went up in the air. We have seen those entirely accidental handballs, but when I saw the replay, I thought, ‘Oh, they might’.”
Liverpool did not deserve to win the game against Newcastle and Arne Slot and his players were magnanimous in defeat. But had the Reds been given a spot kick, that could have changed the course of the match.
Dan Burn powered his side in front from a Trippier corner kick after this incident and then Alexander Isak added a second soon after the second half began. Federico Chiesa’s late goal proved only to be a consolation.
Slot refuted the suggestion that Newcastle wanted it more having gone 70 years without winning a trophy. “No, because it’s 70 years since they last won a trophy maybe, but that’s for the fans,” he said during his post-match press conference.
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“Players have 15 years to play football and they want to win every single trophy they are competing for. That’s also what we want. But it was a game that went the way they wanted it to go.
“And they got just before half-time some extra energy with the goal, which they probably deserved after the first 45 minutes because they were threatening us more than we were threatening them.
“I don’t think there was more hunger for them. The game went the way they wanted it to go and they are stronger in that part of football than us and that’s why they beat us.”
Liverpool.com says: It is surprising that more hasn’t been made of the Trippier handball. It probably falls into the category of if it had been given on the field, the VAR wouldn’t have overturned it.
