Fulham were left fuming at Anfield on Wednesday night with one player claiming even the referee didn't think Mo Salah's match winning penalty should ever have been awarded.
Just three days on from officials being in the spotlight following Liverpool's chaotic win over Tottenham, the same venue again courted controversy although this time around, it had little to do with Jurgen Klopp's touchline antics. Instead, the talking point centred around the game's defining moment in the 39th minute when Darwin Nunez went down in the box after dispossessing Issa Diop.
Referee Stuart Attwell pointed to the spot, with his call seemingly vindicated by a swift VAR check. However, slow motion replays seemed to show that Diop avoided making any contact with the Uruguayan forward, and midfielder Tom Cairney later claimed that Attwell acknowledged that notion.
“I thought we played very well at times, but to lose to a penalty that wasn’t a penalty is always a kick in the you-know-whats," Cairney told the official Fulham website. "At the time, I wasn’t sure. The ref made a decision, I thought he’d seen contact. I asked him on the pitch, ‘please just make sure they check it.’ He said they checked it."
And according to Cairney, the ref's admission came later in the night: "He said second half to one of our players that it wasn’t a penalty, so it’s frustrating because it goes to other people to make the correct decision. Issa Diop hasn’t touched him, Nunez has taken another step and then gone over, and then you lose to something like that at Anfield which is frustrating when we’re trying to climb as high as we can.”
Fulham manager Marco Silva had earlier gone a step further than his midfielder, telling reporters to lose to such a decision was "embarrassing." And like Cairney, he was left bemused as to why VAR didn't intervene.
"When you have the referee, then the VAR to help the referee, it is embarrassing," he said. "I didn't speak with the referee. I think my players and everyone that is honest will say the same. I will listen over the next few days if it is a harsh decision but for me it is clearly not a penalty. The player is already in the air."
The result signified a third straight defeat for Silva's side, but the Cottagers remain on course for a first top-10 Premier League finish since 2011-12. They lie tenth, but are five points clear of Crystal Palace below them with four games left.
Klopp meanwhile, steered clear of weighing on in the penalty decision, after seeing his side keep their faint top four hopes alive. On Tuesday, the Liverpool boss was charged by the FA for his post-match comments on Paul Tierney after the Spurs win, accusing the official of bias against his team.
