da dobrowin： Luis Diaz's disallowed goal for Liverpool in Saturday's 2-1 loss to Tottenham should have stood, English football's refereeing body has admitted.
da bwin： Article continues below
Article continues below
Article continues below
Diaz scored in first halfVAR did not change offside decisionPGMOL says goal should have countedWHAT HAPPENED?
The Colombia international thought he had given the Reds the lead in the clash at Spurs but the goal was flagged for offside.
A VAR review was conducted but the decision was allowed to stand and Spurs went on to score a goal of their own moments later.
Liverpool managed an equaliser but, having been reduced to nine men, ended up conceding a late own goal by Joel Matip right at the end to lose 2-1.
AdvertisementGettyTHE BIGGER PICTURE
The game was overshadowed by controversial decisions, as before Diaz's disallowed goal, Curtis Jones saw an initial yellow card changed to a red after a VAR review for his collision with Yves Bissouma.
The Reds ended up down to nine men in the second half when Diogo Jota was dismissed with two bookings in the space of a minute, although he did not seem to foul Destiny Udogie for his first booking.
Coach Jurgen Klopp complained after the game that he "never saw a game like this with the most unfair circumstances, crazy decisions."
WHAT THEY SAID
The Professional Game Match Officials Board (PGMOL), which oversees the referees in English football, conceded that the decision to chalk Diaz's goal off was wrong.
"PGMOL acknowledge a significant human error occurred during the first half of Tottenham Hotspur v Liverpool," a statement read. "The goal by Luis Diaz was disallowed for offside by the on-field team of match officials. This was a clear and obvious factual error and should have resulted in the goal being awarded through VAR intervention, however, the VAR failed to intervene.
"PGMOL will conduct a full review into the circumstances which led to the error. PGMOL will immediately be contacting Liverpool at the conclusion of the fixture to acknowledge the error."
The statement did nothing to soften the blow for Reds boss Klopp, who said: "Who does that help now? We had that situation in the Man United game. Did Wolves get points for it? We will not get points for it so it doesn't help.
"Nobody expects 100 per cent right decisions on field but we all thought when VAR comes in, it might make things easier. I don't know why the people are that much under pressure. Today, the decision was made really quick for that goal. It changed the momentum of the game so that's how it is.
"We score that goal, it was top, top, top, outstandingly well played. In a game where you don't get a lot, it's super important information. This is how we can hurt them, this is how we can beat them. So it was super difficult."
Getty ImagesWHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
Liverpool will try to bounce back from their first defeat of the season when they take on Royale Union Saint-Gilloise in the Europa League on Thursday.