Brighton star escaped clear red card for 'cheating' against Liverpool, claims former chief referee | OneFootball

The potentially pivotal moment went un-penalised as Liverpool lost on the south coast

Brighton star Yankuba Minteh should have been sent off for attempting to “cheat” during the Seagulls’ 2-1 home win over Liverpool, a former chief referee has claimed.

However, it was an incident later in the first half for which ex-PGMOL boss Keith Hackett believes Minteh should have received his marching orders.

Having darted in behind Frimpong inside Liverpool’s penalty area, Minteh went down rather easily in search of a spot-kick.

On the pitch, referee Darren England waved play on without awarding a penalty or penalising Minteh for what looked to be a dive and VAR did not intervene, but Hackett said the Brighton man hitting the turf as he did should have resulted in him being shown a second yellow card.

“There should be only one outcome for this type of offence: a yellow card for attempting to deceive the referee by an act of simulation,” he told Football Insider.

In the second half, Minteh went on to deliver the cross that led to Brighton’s decisive second goal before being substituted in favour of the similarly threatening Kaoru Mitoma with a quarter of an hour to go.

Victory - a fourth in five league games - at the Amex Stadium took Brighton into the top half of the Premier League table, while defeat for Liverpool has piled more pressure on Arne Slot and his Champions League-chasing crew.