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Carabao Cup: Virgil van Dijk angry at referee’s decision

Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk got angry the referee’s decision to not hand Tottenham Hotspur’s Lucas Bergvall a second yellow card.

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Van Dijk angry at referee’s decision

Referee Stuart Atwell earlier gave Bergvall a yellow card for fouling Luis Diaz.

However, the 18-year-old committed another late tackle on Kostas Tsimikas, but the referee chose to let play continue and not give him his second yellow card.

This allowed Bergvall to score past Alisson after an excellent setup by Dominic Solanke, while Tsimikas remained off the field receiving treatment.

“It was quite obvious there was gonna be a second yellow,” Van Dijk told Sky Sports after the game.

“It was pretty clear, and then a minute later he scores the winner. Listen, it is what it is. [The referee] made a mistake in my opinion and I told him that. He thinks he didn’t. It was quite obvious and everyone on the sideline knew it.

“There’s a linesman there, there’s a fourth official, there’s VAR … and he doesn’t get a second yellow. I’m not saying this is the reason we lost, but it was a big moment in the game.”

Manager Arne Slot echoed Van Dijk’s comments, saying: “The decision he [the referee] made had a lot of impact on the result tonight.”

“We played against an intense team”

Despite the non-call, the Netherlands international said that his squad “could have done better” in creating opportunities.

Liverpool will head to Anfield to play the second leg facing a deficit.

“We played against an intense team with good attacking players who keep running and make it difficult,” he said.

“We created opportunities — not really clear-cut chances in my opinion, but enough that we could have scored.”

“At times we could have done better. That’s part of football. At times we played through them nicely, but they were able to defend much better than when we were here a couple of weeks ago.”

Liverpool will return to Anfield for their second leg on February 6.