Southampton boss Ivan Juric has reacted to his team being beaten at Liverpool in the Premier League on Saturday afternoon
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LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - MARCH 08: Southampton manager Ivan Juric during the Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Southampton FC at Anfield on March 08, 2025 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Matt Watson/Southampton FC via Getty Images)
Unhappy Southampton manager Ivan Juric during his Southampton side's 3-1 defeat at Liverpool
(Image: Matt Watson/Southampton FC via Getty Images)
Southampton boss Ivan Juric is adamant Liverpool’s first penalty should not have been given as his team tumbled to defeat at Anfield. The rock-bottom Saints were ahead at half-time through Will Smallbone’s strike before two goals in three minutes transformed the game and propelled the Reds to a 3-1 Premier League triumph on Saturday afternoon.
Darwin Nunez levelled on 51 minutes before winning a penalty converted by Mohamed Salah when he was adjudged to have been fouled by goalscorer Smallbone.
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VAR had earlier concurred with referee Lewis Smith’s initial call of a yellow card after Nunez was guilty of a poor tackle on Kyle Walker-Peters.
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And when asked if he was disappointed with the decisions of the video officials, Juric said: “I am a little bit. I think the first penalty was not a penalty and that changed the match.
“This cannot be a penalty ever. The contact was too soft to be a penalty in England. I'm sorry it happened because it was 1-1 and it changed the match a little bit. We have lots of young players who want to grow up and improve.
“We can lose but we have to fight like we fight today. I am satisfied with how we played today.”
Salah scored another spot kick late on after Southampton substitute Yukinari Sugawara – who conceded a decisive penalty for handball in the Reds’ 3-2 win at the Saints earlier in the season – again handled when under pressure from Luis Diaz.
“I know it was a handball last time, I think he was a little bit pushed,” said Juric. “But he needs to be more careful, you can’t give away penalties in that situation.”
While Liverpool are now 16 points clear at the Premier League summit, Southampton remain rooted to the foot of the table with just nine points from 28 games.
But Juric said of his team’s form: “We did some really good games in this period (since his appointment shortly before Christmas), but the last two games were really bad.
“Today we changed the way we were playing and the players were really confident and we did some really good things.
“We want to still be aggressive but the players need to be closer to each other. They worked hard this week, they understood the things we wanted. They did well.”