Virgil van Dijk
Van Dijk made his feelings clear (Image: UEFA via Getty Images)
Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk hit back at PSG chief Luis Campos in the tunnel during a half-time shouting match at the Parc des Princes on Wednesday night.
As the teams made their way back to the dressing room at the break, PSG were furious with Italian referee Davide Massa for failing to dismiss Ibrahima Konate. Konate appeared to nudge Bradley Barcola as he attempted to latch onto a long ball and the winger went to ground, claiming he was pushed in the back by his international team-mate.
Ref Massa ignored the incident which was also subject to a VAR review but the officials were happy to let play continue, much to the relief of Konate and Liverpool.
But PSG Football Advisor Campos, recently linked with Arsenal, let rip at the officials at the interval and could be heard shouting: "It's a red card or a penalty, in every part of the world," during footage released by Canal Plus.
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Immediately, imperious Reds skipper Van Dijk responded, bellowing: "Come on, this is not Ligue 1 brother."
That did not calm Campos down though as he continued to shout: "Red card or penalty, in every part of football!"
TNT Sports pundits Ally McCoist and Rio Ferdinand believed Konate was lucky to escape punishment as the ex-Manchester United defender claimed during TV commentary: "That is a foul. I think it might just be outside the box. If that is not a red card I will be amazed. It will be a shame if it does go down to 10 against 11 in that sense because you want the best players playing each other equally in the 90 minutes."
Ibrahima Konate
Ibrahima Konate escaped a red card against PSG after seemingly nudging Bradley Barcola
PSG midfielder Vitinha did not want to blame the controversial decision for the result as he felt the hosts dominated the Reds and deserved to win.
He said: "The foul on Barcola? It was difficult to see. I can't talk without seeing it and we're not going to hide behind that."
Konate, however, was adamant he did not foul Barcola though, telling French TV: "There was a VAR check. If there was a push, like you said, I would have been shown a red card.
“I’m telling you that there wasn’t a foul. It’s true that I am very strong but I don’t apply power, I just put my arm. If I had put a lot more power into it then we could talk about it but it was soft for me.”
Harvey Elliott's late strike, less than a minute after entering the field, gave Liverpool a priceless 1-0 lead ahead of next week's crunch second-leg shootout at Anfield.
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