Liverpool ‘raise serious concerns’ to PGMOL over ‘wrong’ Virgil van Dijk goal decision vs Man City

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·10. November 2025

Liverpool ‘raise serious concerns’ to PGMOL over ‘wrong’ Virgil van Dijk goal decision vs Man City

According to reports, Liverpool have ‘raised serious concerns’ with the PGMOL as they are unhappy with Virgil van Dijk’s disallowed goal vs Man City.

On Sunday afternoon, Liverpool were dominated by Man City at the Etihad, with Erling Haaland, Nico Gonzalez and Jeremy Doku scoring in a deserved 3-0 win for the hosts.

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In the second half, Liverpool were slightly better before Doku killed the game with his superb long-range strike, though the visitors produced a nothing performance before the break.

Liverpool’s only good moment before the interval came as Van Dijk headed the ball home from a corner, as he looked to have cancelled out Haaland’s opener.

However, this goal was ruled out by VAR as Andy Robertson was adjudged to have impacted play from an offside position, but he was not in Gianluigi Donnarumma’s line of sight when the centre-back made contact with the ball.

Slot said: “I think it’s obvious and clear that the wrong decision has been made, at least in my opinion. Because he [Robertson] didn’t interfere at all with what the goalkeeper could do.

“Immediately after the game someone showed me the goal that the same referee allowed City against Wolves last season [John Stones’ last minute winner]. So it took the linesman 13 seconds to raise his flag to say it’s offside. So there was clearly communication.

“That could have influenced the game in a positive way for us because in the first half we were so poor.

“We would have been lucky going 1-0 down at half-time, let alone if it was 1-1 or 2-1 down.

“So it has been an influential decision, which is not to say that we then would have had a result over here because you cannot predict how the second half would have gone.”

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Now, a report from The Athletic’s James Pearce has revealed that the Reds have ‘raised serious concerns’ to the PGMOL after ‘contacting referees’ chief Howard Webb’.

It is noted that the PGMOL’s ‘reasoning’ for disallowing Van Dijk’s goal ‘doesn’t stack up’.

The report explains:

‘Liverpool have told Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) that they do not accept that the decision to disallow the goal, that was scored when the score was at 1-0 in the first half, was arrived at for subjective reasons. ‘The club believe that the wording of the law is clear and that no elements of the criteria needed to disallow the goal were met so it should have been allowed to stand.’