Why Ibrahima Konate Should Have Received Red Card in Liverpool-PSG, per CBS Rules Analyst | OneFootball

Paris Saint-Germain created several chances but couldn’t find the net, falling 1-0 to Liverpool on Wednesday night at the Parc des Princes in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League Round of 16 tie.

The decisive goal came late in the second half, but the match’s most controversial moment occurred midway through the first when Liverpool defender Ibrahima Konate brought down Bradley Barcola on a challenge.

VAR reviewed the incident to determine if it should result in a red card for denying a goal-scoring opportunity, but after the check, the referee allowed play to continue.

After the match, CBS Sports Rules Analyst Christina Unkel shared her thoughts on whether the refereeing in the match got the call right to not send Liverpool down to 10 men.

“I’m actually going to disagree with the referee and VAR on this play,” Unkel said on the CBS Sports postgame show. “I believe this should have been reviewed as a red card for denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity…

“There are two questions being asked. First, is the contact enough? You have to consider whether it’s more of a shoulder-to-shoulder challenge or if the attacker is properly running into the play, cutting him off, and gaining a positional advantage.

“In this case, the defender goes through the attacker, which isn’t just a shoulder-to-shoulder challenge. It doesn’t take much to throw an attacker off balance in that situation. The second question people will ask is whether the attacker had the opportunity to control the ball.

“The answer here is yes. He’s a high-level professional footballer, and it meets all the necessary criteria. So, I would have liked to see this called as a penalty, with VAR stepping in if it wasn’t called on the field.”

This loss is PSG’s first since last November when they fell to Bayern Munich. Luis Enrique and his team must pick themselves up and turn the tie around at Anfield.