Biased Balls: Spurs and Liverpool club websites at odds over penalties in 2-2 draw
Liverpool and Spurs drew 2-2 in a vibrant Premier League match in which the Londoner were awarded two penalties, scoring one in the 95th minute. shold they ahve been given? Let’;s see what the locals papers and clueb’s webiste says of things:
First, Kane was felled in the area by Karius before Liverpool’s goalkeeper read the striker’s intention to put the resulting spot-kick down the middle and palmed it away.
Kane was fouled for the first penalty, which he missed, says the official Liverpool website. What about the second, which he scored from?
….Kane converted his second penalty of the match – given after Van Dijk had been adjudged to have fouled Erik Lamela – deep into added time to earn a point for Spurs.
Not so clear that time, then. Although one opinion on the Liverpool website – the only one – says Liverpool were robbed:
Here’s what ex-Red John Aldridge made of an incredible game at Anfield – he was on co-commentary duties for us at Anfied today.
“An unbelievable ending and, for me, that is never a penalty, so it’s a hard one to take.
And in the live blog:
Lamela goes down in the box and linesman awards a penalty to Spurs. That looked soft, you have to say.
Tottenham Hotspur FC:
…when Kane was tripped by Loris Karius and referee Jon Moss awarded us a penalty, even after extensive consultation with his linesman, the striker looked odds-on to score his 100th Premier League goal and give us a rare win at Anfield.
Karius saved it, though…
First penalty: nailed on.
But you can never write off this team! We kept pushing and after Virgil van Dijk’s foul on Erik Lamela was spotted by the assistant referee
Second penalty: also nailed on.
What about the clubs’ local papers?
Eyebrows were raised when Kane was given a penalty late on, despite appearing to be in an offside position
Eyebrows? Spurs fans were surely rising hands and fists.
Virgil van Dijk was judged to have upended Erik Lamela in the fifth minute of injury time after initially seeing the appeals waved away by Jon Moss.
So much for the judgement. What about the first Spurs penalty?
That was incident [sic] wasn’t the first controversial one of the day however after Spurs were given a penalty minutes earlier with the game finely poised at 1-1.
Kane was in an offside position as he latched on to a through ball from Dele Alli before going down under a challenge from Loris Karius inside the area.
The paper then notes that because of the rules – those pesky rules – Kane wasn’t offside.
London Evening Standard:
Penalty 1:
Kane was…brought down in the box by Karius.
The Tottenham and Wood Green Independent:
Van Dijk caught Lamela with an attempted clearance
Bias? Yes. and no VAR, which would have made the decisions no clearer.
Posted: 4th, February 2018 | In: Liverpool, Sports, Spurs Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
