Forest slam referee’s decision before Liverpool’s late goal

Bengaluru — Referee Paul Tierney’s decision not to return the ball to Nottingham Forest after restart, minutes before Liverpool’s 99th-minute winner was wrong, Forest’s referee analyst said.

Forest’s 1-0 home defeat to Liverpool on Saturday ended in chaos after the final whistle with Tierney surrounded by Forest’s enraged staff, ultimately resulting in coaching staff member Steven Reid being shown a red card.

Tierney had stopped play due to Liverpool defender Ibrahima Konate’s head injury while Forest were attacking and forward Callum Hudson-Odoi was in possession of the ball.

Play was then restarted with an uncontested drop ball that was given to Liverpool goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher, which led to Liverpool progressing up the pitch and eventually winning the match thanks to Darwin Nunez’s header.

“The law states that, if the referee is going to stop the game — which he is entitled to for a head injury — the ball has to go back to the team that has possession. Forest clearly had possession,” Forest’s referee analyst Mark Clattenburg told reporters on Saturday.

“What we will be doing is speaking to the PGMOL [Professional Game Match Officials Limited], with my relationships that I have with the PGMOL and the Premier League, and we will discuss what happened on the field of play today, and we will look at the course of action in the future.

“The owner [Evangelos Marinakis] is quite upset ... he wants to see results and he feels that another decision has gone against the club.”

Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp said Tierney had made the same decision against his team earlier in the half.

“This happened exactly the same way as it did in the first half, just the other way round ... I would now assume that is the rule,” Klopp said on Saturday.

“I understand the anger from Nottingham of course ... it happened twice and it was handled exactly the same, so I don’t really see the reason for the discussions.”

Reuters