Virgil van Dijk couldn’t imagine that Anthony Gordon was initially shown a yellow card before he was sent off because of VAR in Liverpool’s win over Newcastle.
It was a unbelievable contest at St James’ Park on Monday night because the Reds left with a 3-2 victory because of an injury time goal from 16-year-old Rio Ngumoha.
Ryan Gravenberch put Liverpool ahead in the primary half after which just before the interval Gordon was sent off for a reckless challenge on Van Dijk.
The England winger was late and jumped in dangerously on the Dutchman, who was pointing to clear stud marks in his calf after the challenge.
Referee Simon Hooper initially showed Gordon a yellow card but after being told to take a look at a replay by VAR, he upgraded the choice to a red.
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Van Dijk says he made it clear to Gordon that it was clearly a red card and questioned why the official needed a re-examination on the poor tackle.
‘I said to him, “If it’s not a sending off then I don’t understand football”,’ Van Dijk told Sky Sports.
‘I feel it was really strange that the referee needed to go to the monitor, for my part.
‘Unfortunately these items occur in football. If he meant it or not, it happened, we move on. That’s it.’
Newcastle manager Eddie Howe defended his player, feeling that there was no malice within the challenge.
‘Just reflecting on that, I believed there was no intent,’ Howe told Sky Sports of the tackle. ‘People say it looks bad, I haven’t seen it again, I’ve seen a fast image of it, I believed he was attempting to pull out of the tackle.
‘Anthony’s challenge is a red card and that doesn’t look good, but as I said I don’t think there was any intent in it.’
It looked prefer it was going to be a snug night for the Reds when Hugo Ekitike scored immediately after the interval to place Liverpool 2-0 ahead with a person advantage.
The Magpies showed good spirit, though, and got themselves back level because of goals from Bruno Guimaraes and substitute William Osula.
There was still time for Ngumoha to grow to be a hero for Liverpool because the teenager scored 10 minutes into injury time, becoming the youngest goal-scorer in Reds history.
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