Tottenham Hotspur defeated Liverpool 1-0 in the first leg of their League Cup semifinal tie tonight, but it wasn’t without its controversy. Lucas Bergvall scored the match winner in what was also his first goal for the club, but only after he seemingly escaped punishment for a late tackle on Konstantinos Tsimikas a couple of minutes prior.
It certainly LOOKED like a yellow card in real time (though we should also admit Lucas’ first yellow card was ridiculously soft) but match official Stuart Atwell called advantage to Liverpool on the play and then declined to go back and review the foul.
Ange Postecoglou was asked about the incident after the match by Sky Sports, and he had an excellent answer already prepared.
I love this answer. First, because Ange had that response ready to go and also tied it into previous officiating decisions of a similar nature that happened to Spurs and were NOT called that way. But secondly, I love it because Liverpool had had the benefit of many, MANY non-calls by Stuart Atwell for shoulder charges, barges, and bad tackles. The match was called very softly, and Liverpool was taking full advantage of Atwell’s reluctance to blow his whistle.
Ange expounded upon that in the post-match press conference.
“I spoke about it after the game last time, I think my comments were mis-interpreted. I didn’t criticise the referee or the decision. I didn’t think the decision was right about the handball. But I said, it’s very hard at the moment, it’s very confusing, to understand certain elements of the game.
“Now we’ve been told consistently in the last few weeks, because I’ve been screaming about it from the sidelines, because a lot of teams have got away with a lot of fouls with us, without bookings, because the referee plays advantage. We’ve been told consistently that if we play advantage, as long as it’s not a cynical foul, then the player does not get cautioned. So that’s been relayed to us on a weekly basis. Because we feel like that’s been happening. That’s one of the things I was bemoaning last weekend. There’s certain players who were repeatedly fouling, we were getting advantage, but no bookings. That’s what I’m talking about.”
So yeah. It sounds to me like allowing fouls to happen when advantage is being played is not the way Ange would like the match officiated, but it’s the way the game has been called, so Bergvall’s challenge was correctly adjudicated based on past precedent. Was Bergvall lucky not to be sent off? Probably. Did Atwell make the right call in the context of the match based on the rules of the game? Sure did. Am I tickled that once again we’ve beaten Liverpool in a way that makes their fans incredibly nude and red online? Oh you bet your ass.
