BBC Sport pundit Chris Sutton has claimed that Darwin Nunez's risky tackle on Southampton's Kyle Walker-Peters should have seen him sent off before he helped inspire Liverpool's second-half comeback. The striker received only a yellow card for the contentious incident in which he deliberately swiped at the legs of his opponents, but Sutton felt he was fortunate to stay on the pitch.
VAR did step in to assess whether a red card was warranted, but the match continued without further disciplinary action against Nunez. The challenge and its repercussions were debated and Paul Merson weighed in with: "VAR are looking at this. It's very, very silly what he has done." Sutton said: "It was such a reckless, daft challenge. Liverpool lucky to have 11 on the pitch."
Soon after, Will Smallbone put Southampton ahead before half-time thanks to a defensive blunder involving Virgil van Dijk and goalkeeper Alisson, which Mateus Fernandes took advantage of, leaving Smallbone to slip the ball into the net.
Nunez later scored a goal to bring the Reds level in the second half and then earned a penalty which Mohamed Salah duly slotted home just minutes later. Salah scored a second spot-kick at the death to secure a 3-1 victory for the Premier League leaders.
And post-match the Egyptian said of Nunez: "Very important. He is a very important player for us. I’m always there talking to him. He is very important, we need him. And you saw him also in the last game against PSG, he was very important when he came in, making a difference. Good for him.
"I don’t think we played well today. Maybe second half we played a little bit better, but first half we didn’t play well at all. But if you want to win the Champions League or the Premier League, you have to win those kinds of games."
This story originally appeared on the Liverpool Echo