Liverpool’s Arne Slot calls disallowed Virgil van Dijk goal vs. City ‘clear’ mistake, admits deficit deserved

MANCHESTER — Though he was at pains to emphasize that the two-goal hole Liverpool found themselves in was a fair reflection of the first half, Arne Slot insisted the story of his side’s 3-0 hammering at Manchester City could have been rather different if VAR had not overruled Virgil van Dijk’s 38th-minute header.

Captain Van Dijk thought he had brought Liverpool level when he guided Mohamed Salah’s delivery onto a powerful arc that curled inside the far post, seemingly cancelling out Erling Haaland’s earlier header. However, his celebrations were soon punctured by jubilation at the Etihad Stadium as video assistant referee Michael Oliver instructed him to overturn the goal. Andrew Robertson had ducked out of the way of the header and was certainly near the ball, though controversy reigned over whether he had been standing between Van Dijk and Donnarumma.

Slot was insistent that that was not the case, saying it was “obvious and clear that the wrong decision had been made.” Before halftime was out, Liverpool would find themselves in an irretrievable position, Nico Gonzalez striking low and hard from outside the box. The two-goal deficit was a fair reflection of a half in which Haaland and Jeremy Doku had run the champions ragged and indeed was one that Slot had few complaints about in his post-match press conference. However, he could not help but reflect on what might have been if his side had been given their equalizer.

“I would like to emphasize the fact that being 2-0 down at halftime was a fair reflection of how the game went,” he said. “But I have been on the opposite side, that my team was much better than the other team, we were 1-0 up and then maybe not scoring the second one and the other team gets a set piece, it’s 1-1 and then all of a sudden things change. This can happen in football.

“I constantly felt if we were managing to keep maybe 1-0 down until halftime, we can maybe adjust a few things, which was definitely necessary because we were constantly coming one or two players short in the midfield because Doku and [Nico] O’Reilly gave us a lot of problems with the two of them. Then 1-1 would have been the biggest gift we could get at halftime because, in my opinion, the second half was a different game, but being 2-0 down and later 3-0 down that maybe doesn’t give a good reflection of how things would have went if it would have been 1-1.”

Referee body PGMOL said that Van Dijk’s goal had been ruled out because Robertson had been “deemed to be making an obvious action directly in front of the goalkeeper” and the laws of the game do make reference to it being an offside offensee to make “an obvious action which clearly impacts on the ability of an opponent to play the ball.” Whether Robertson’s duck did so for Donnarumma is up for debate.

Whether that goal stood may not have made much of a difference anyway, as Slot himself acknowledged. On the occasion of Pep Guardiola’s 1000th game in charge, his team were as irresistible as they have been in a great many of the past 549 in which he has managed City. He said, “Thank you to the players and staff for giving me an incredible present against the most important opponent we faced in my time here. It has been a special night with my kids here.”

The stakes of this frequently totemic game had only been raised further on Saturday night when Arsenal dropped their first points since September with a 2-2 draw at Sunderland. Victory for City moved them within four points of the league leaders. Liverpool, meanwhile, have five defeats from their opening 11 games and are now eight points off the top.

Asked about the opportunity that had opened up for City after Sunderland’s late equalizer, Guardiola said, “I think Liverpool and us said, ‘Oh wow, Arsenal dropped points finally and conceded two goals.’ I said to the players not to do it because yesterday Arsenal didn’t win. Do it because we believe in ourselves that we can play against the champions of England and show them we are ready to be there with them this season. Today we proved it – especially in the first half.”