“Can’t understand it” – Sky Sports pundit left baffled after big refereeing call in Liverpool draw | OneFootball

Amid all the kerfuffle over Mo Salah’s post-match comments, it was easy to forget that Liverpool had played out a rollercoaster 3-3 draw away to Leeds on Saturday evening.

The Reds seemed to be in firm control when leading 2-0 with just under 20 minutes to go, only for Ibrahima Konate to have a penalty awarded against him after an impetuous challenge on Wilfried Gnonto.

Anthony Taylor hadn’t pointed to the spot initially, but he changed his mind after consulting the pitchside VAR monitor, and Dominic Calvert-Lewin duly netted to halve the deficit before Anton Stach soon helped himself to an equaliser.

Konate slammed over ‘terrible’ misjudgement for Leeds penalty

On Monday morning, Dermot Gallagher and Jay Bothroyd made their customary appearances on Sky Sports‘ Ref Watch segment, and both men agreed that the Liverpool defender only had himself to blame over the eventual decision.

The former top-flight referee said: “The ball is definitely in play. Konate didn’t have to make that tackle.”

The ex-Blackburn striker went further in his criticism of the 26-year-old as he claimed: “Konate just has to stay on his feet. He’s lunged in and not touched the ball. I really can’t understand it. It’s a terrible decision from Konate.”

Image via Sky Sports

Konate’s moment of madness triggered Liverpool collapse

There didn’t appear to be a great deal of contact by Konate on Gnonto, but only the Frenchman can explain what possessed him to lunge in so needlessly on the Leeds attacker, who looked as though he was about to inadvertently run the ball out of play for a goal kick.

Liverpool’s number 5 gave the officials a valid reason to award the penalty, and Calvert-Lewin wasn’t about to look the gift horse in the mouth, with that proving to be the turning point of what had seemed to be a morale-boosting away win for the Reds at that time.

The 26-year-old isn’t solely responsible for his team’s chaotic collapse – that was a collective meltdown – but for a player of his experience to make such an impetuous and senseless decision is inexcusable, and it cost us massively on Saturday.

Football writer Josh Williams vividly accused Konate of metaphorically ‘setting fire to the house‘, and while we don’t condone any personal abuse being directed at the defender, giving away that penalty to stupidly was the last thing he needed after all the criticism he’s already received this season.

All the Liverpool centre-back had to do was stay on his feet and close the angle to prevent Gnonto from putting a cross in. Unfortunately, a rush of blood to the head presented Leeds with the chance to get a foothold in the game and ultimately claim a share of the spoils in a crazy second half.

Our number 5 simply must learn from such a costly and unnecessary lapse in judgement.