Liverpool have lodged a complaint to referees’ chief Howard Webb about Virgil van Dijk’s disallowed goal against Manchester City.
According to The Athletic, the Premier League champions have raised serious concerns with PGMOL — Professional Game Match Officials Ltd — that they do not accept the decision to disallow the goal.
Reds captain Van Dijk thought he had equalised on Sunday, cancelling out Erling Haaland’s opening goal, when heading home Mohamed Salah’s corner during the first half.
However, the assistant referee immediately raised his flag to signal that Andy Robertson was standing in an offside position in front of City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma’s line of sight, also interfering with play.
Liverpool believe the wording of the law is clear and, having “scrutinised all available footage from multiple angles” senior Liverpool figures have come to the conclusion that Robertson did not impede Donnarumma in any way.
Michael Oliver, the VAR for the match, confirmed the on-field decision of offside and referee Chris Kavanagh, therefore, disallowed the goal. VAR could have asked Kavanagh to review the incident on the pitchside monitor, but clearly felt that was unnecessary.
Liverpool believe Kavanagh should have been told to view the footage, which would have likely led to the goal standing.
After Van Dijk’s disallowed goal, Nico Gonzalez scored in first-half injury time before man-of-the-match Jeremy Doku completed a resounding and comfortable 3-0 win over Liverpool.
Speaking during the game on Sky Sports, co-commentator Gary Neville added: "When you're losing 3-0, you can't be whinging about a disallowed goal."
