Jamie Carragher said that he would have been “very upset” had he been punished for a foul like the one Donny van de Beek was adjudged to have committed on Luis Diaz in Liverpool’s win over Girona.
The Reds were well below their best during the first half in Catalonia but asserted more dominance on proceedings after the break, and won the match 1-0 through a Mohamed Salah penalty.
That penalty was awarded when the referee was instructed by the VAR to take another look at an incident involving Van de Beek and Diaz on the pitchside monitor.
Van de Beek accidentally trod on the back of one of Diaz’s boots, forcing it to come off, and the referee changed his original decision having initially neglected to point to the spot.
“I don’t think it’s a penalty,” Liverpool legend Carragher said. “I think it’s very harsh. We’ve spoken about decisions in this competition for the last couple of years now and the penalties I see get given in the Champions League, I’d be very upset if they were given against me.
“I couldn’t see nothing in it initially. The boot’s come off, but it doesn’t really affect him in any way in terms of a foul, really. I don’t even think it’s harsh, I just don’t think it’s a penalty. You see how disappointed Van De Beek is there and rightly so.”
Former Arsenal striker Thierry Henry was in the CBS Sports studio alongside Carragher and agreed with his colleague’s assertion that the awarding of a penalty was harsh.
“That wasn’t a penalty,” Henry said. “If Jamie says it wasn’t a penalty, we don’t even have to see it, (as a) Liverpool man. It really wasn’t a penalty.”
