MANCHESTER UNITED fans believe Virgil van Dijk’s opener should have been disallowed because of a foul on Harry Maguire.
The Dutchman opened the scoring on 14 minutes when he towered above the England defender to head home Trent Alexander-Arnold’s corner.
Van Dijk climbed above Maguire to head homeCredit: Reuters
Van Dijk was then in the thick of it for Liverpool’s disallowed second when VAR adjudged him to have fouled keeper David De Gea before Robert Firmino’s strike.
He jumped into the Spaniard, causing United’s No1 to spill the ball before Firmino eventually fired it home.
United players were furious including De Gea who was booked for his over-zealous protests to the referee.
Replays show the contact was soft and even Gary Neville admitted his former side got away with it.
But it was the first that had some United fans up in arms.
Liverpool’s Joe Gomez appeared to have his arms around the waist of Maguire that prevented him from leaping high enough to challenge Van Dijk.
One fan on Twitter said: “Typical of Liverpool to get the decision when Gomez was holding Maguire like his girlfriend.”
Another added: “Gomez bear-hugged Maguire and stopped him from jumping.”
Van Dijk was then adjudged to have fouled De Gea to rule out the secondCredit: Reuters
A third said: “Joe Gomez has held Harry Maguire THRICE during set-pieces so Van Dijk can have aerial advantage. VAR hasn’t spotted it. Ref hasn’t spotted it.”
United will feel some justice may have been served when VAR ruled out a second Liverpool goal just minutes later.
And they had a goal ruled out for a third time when Georginio Wijnaldum was ruled offside before slotting home.
But Mohamed Salah scored in the dying seconds of the game to finally put the game beyond doubt for the Reds in a 2-0 win.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
