Liverpool (AFP) – Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson had a stoppage-time winner ruled out for offside as Everton twice came from behind to salvage their unbeaten start to the Premier League season on Saturday in a pulsating Merseyside derby that ended 2-2.
Everton have still not won a derby for 10 years, but manager Carlo Ancelotti will be the happier of the two managers to escape with a point after Henderson’s strike did not stand for the most marginal of offside calls against Sadio Mane in the build-up following a VAR review.
A share of the spoils means Everton remain three points clear of their city rivals at the top of the table.
Liverpool were smashed 7-2 by Aston Villa in their last game before the international break, but started like a side keen to make amends.
Mane missed the Villa Park mauling after testing positive for coronavirus and the Senegalese showed why he was badly missed with a smart finish from Andy Robertson’s cut-back to open the scoring.
Everton had a major let off moments later when Virgil Van Dijk was on the receiving end of a dangerous late lunge from Jordan Pickford as a free-kick was swung into the box.
However, no penalty was awarded on a VAR review because Van Dijk had been marginally offside and Pickford also incredibly avoided a red card.
Ancelotti’s men made the most of that reprieve to level on 19 minutes when Michael Keane’s header from James Rodriguez’s corner had too much power for Adrian.
But it was Liverpool who remained the more dangerous side for the remainder of the first-half. Pickford leapt to his right to make a stunning save from Trent Alexander-Arnold’s free-kick before Mane then had a similar chance to the opening goal only to this time skew Robertson’s cross wide.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s nine goals have been a major part of Everton’s flying start to the season, but the newly-capped England international missed a huge chance to put the home side in front as he failed to connect with Lucas Digne’s low cross five minutes into the second-half.
James has been a player reborn since his move from Real Madrid to join up with Ancelotti at a third club and the Colombian’s sumptuous cross nearly teed up Richarlison for the winner, but the Brazilian’s header came back off the outside of the post.
Those chances looked set to come back to haunt Everton as a moment of magic from Mohamed Salah put Liverpool back in front 18 minutes from time.
Alexander-Arnold’s cross was cut out by Yerry Mina but broke to the Egpytian on his left and he arrowed a shot into the far corner for his sixth goal in five appearances this season.
Pickford kept Everton in the game with an incredible save from Joel Matip’s header and then to parry another piledriver from Salah.
That proved crucial as Calvert-Lewin produced an incredible leap and header from Digne’s cross to level once more.
Everton did finish the game down to 10 men as Richarlison was shown a straight red card for another dangerous lunge, this time on Thiago Alcantara.
Henderson thought he had won the game when Pickford failed to keep out his England teammate’s low shot in stoppage time.
However, the drama did not end there as VAR deemed Mane to be offside as he provided the cross.
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It is good to have a panel but if it is worthless, then why bother?
Dump VAR. Put a chip in the ball in order to make the out of bounds call on the bye line. The assistant ref cannot see the line past the goal. Other than that, the ref makes the call. Some you win some you lose. This nonsense is destroying the beautiful game.
England’s Football Association has a panel with the power to charge a player with violent conduct. If the referee did not address Pickford’s conduct in his match report, I believe that panel will charge him and he will be suspended.
Watching those lines on the screen, the measurements to see if it was offside or not is like watching Forensic Files on HLN. VAR is beyond stupid.
Wish someone could come up with a way to rate leagues in a way that showed value for the money. Sure it is correct that the EPL is ONE of the best leagues. As it should be since it is the richest and spends more money every transfer window then any other league. This time I believe it was about 1.8 BILLION pounds. Chelsea spent around 200 million about 1/10th of that total. Did they look like a team that got value for that money today? M.U. was right up there in spending, playing Newcastle that spent about the least money and finally after 7/8th of the game looking like crap, finally broke them down. So the greediest, for sure, the best depends on how you put a value on the result of all that money spent.
These close calls or in this case there should not have been a call were supposed to be settled by a look at the pitch side monitor. At least that is what was said at the beginning of the season. How can the self-described best league in the world have the worst VAR?
The Premier League doesn’t describe itself as the best league in the world. It is the world’s most popular sports league and one of the best soccer leagues. VAR is a whole other story.
If VAR is all that’s talked about, game in and game out, and is causing a lot more controversy than refereeing decisions of days past (and,mind you, we are talking about English referees who are perpetually in the running the worst referees in the universe), then VAR is the problem!
VAR has to go!
And the offside and handball rules…my god!
No fans, VAR confusion galore, Premier League is so sterile right now, like a video game. Might as well play FIFA instead.
A area that the MLS does better is if there is dangerous play that is not punished during the game, action is taken later. Not sure the EPL does that, if they did Jordan Pickford would be out the next couple of games.
VAR is cancer, it is killing football, and it has to go.
Awful stuff, complete turnoff from football…