Leeds 3-3 Liverpool: Match Review and Mo Salah bombshell
Dominik Szoboszlai scored a late penalty to earn Liverpool a 1-0 victory over Inter Milan.
Inter Milan head coach Cristian Chivu admitted he was baffled why Liverpool were awarded a late penalty to win the Champions League encounter.
Dominik Szoboszlai’s 88th-minute spot-kick earned the Reds a 1-0 triumph at the San Siro. It settled a largely uneventful affair, although the decision was controversial. Referee Felix Zwayer, who ruled out a goal for Liverpool defender Ibrahima Konate in the first half, was not interested when Inter’s Alessandro Bastoni tugged on the shirt of Reds substitute Florian Wirtz.
But VAR intervened as Zwayer was told to review the incident on the pitchside monitor and he reversed his decision. The win moved Liverpool up to eighth in the Champions League standings and closer to qualifying automatically for the last 16.
“A draw was the right result considering how the game was going,” Chivu said via Football Italia. “We didn’t have enough energy in the first half and struggled with their intensity, but then we found the right key to create problems for them. That was after being forced into making two substitutions, which meant in the second half we couldn’t make more changes and were running short on energy.
I rarely comment on refereeing decisions. I talk about education and what we ought to be teaching people, especially in the Champions League. The referee was in an excellent position to view the whole incident, and he decided it did not warrant a penalty.
“When VAR intervenes, it has to understand the dynamics of the game. We must accept the decisions and learn to combat against injustice, be more wary of these things, and try to focus on the good things that we can do.”
Liverpool, without Mo Salah who was omitted from the squad after his outburst following the 3-3 draw with Leeds United, limited Inter to few goalscoring chances throughout the game. The only meaningful save that visiting goalkeeper Alisson Becker had to make was from a Lisandro Martinez header in first-half stoppage-time.
Chivu claimed that the Italian giants, who finished as last season’s Champions League and Serie A runners-up, were starting to take control as he claimed Liverpool midfielder Ryan Gravenberch was ‘leaving room’ but Inter tired.
He added: “We expected their intensity and high press, we could’ve done better, but started a bit too timid. We slowly took control, as Gravenberch kept leaving room. We had started to find those passing channels during the final 20 minutes of the first half, but once the energy levels dropped, we sat a bit too deep.”
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