Southampton fans have taken to Twitter to express their displeasure at Kevin Friend’s decision not to award a penalty in their favour at Anfield on Saturday, after Danny Ings appeared to be tripped by Fabinho.
The former Liverpool striker was bearing down on goal with only Joe Gomez and Fabinho in his way, before jinking past the pair of them in a slightly fortuitous manner as the ball squirmed between the Reds duo.
However, an off-balance Fabinho then appeared to stick his leg out and trip Ings just as he was about to be one-on-one with Alisson Becker, where the England international was left on the deck with his arms outstretched in appeal.
Friend saw nothing wrong with the challenge, before Jurgen Klopp’s side them stormed up the other end and scored themselves courtesy of a Southampton academy graduate Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who drilled a low effort past Alex McCarthy.
Ralph Hasenhuttl’s men eventually lost 4-0, although seeing as the penalty incident happened with the scoreline at 0-0, who knows what might’ve happened had Friend – or VAR – awarded a spot kick.
Let’s see what the Southampton fans on Twitter have been saying…
To kick off the reaction, these two fans certainly weren’t happy with the decision, or lack of one.
@Bxdnarek asked if anybody would care to explain why a penalty wasn’t given after Fabinho felled Ings, with another supporter named Josh seemingly taking aim at Friend by saying “corrupt refs”.
Elsewhere, @saintmck said that it was a “game changer” not to award a penalty, while also branding Friend’s call as a “shocking decision” – it’s hard to disagree after watching a replay of the incident.
Meanwhile, Shaun and Steve also had something to say on the matter.
Shaun felt that it was the honest way in which Ings tried to stay on his feet that went against him, but still said that it was a “stone wall penalty” and how VAR didn’t spot it was “mind boggling”.
Steve then added that, if Liverpool were the ones claiming for a penalty instead, VAR “would have taken 20 minutes” to find a reason to give it to them – a bold statement.
‘Saints Marching’ echoed Steve’s sentiment, saying that there would’ve been uproar if Liverpool had been denied a spot kick following a similar situation.
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This supporter then simply stated that it was “a foul in the box” – no two ways about it.
In other news, this Southampton man missed a big chance to convince Ralph Hasenhuttl against Liverpool…
