'If VAR was involved': Ex-referee gives verdict on major Liverpool decision vs Southampton

Liverpool will discover their next Carabao Cup opponents on Thursday after they beat Southampton to progress into the semi-finals. Arne Slot fielded a heavily rotated squad for the clash at St Mary’s, which saw the likes of Harvey Elliott and Tyler Morton start, alongside Trey Nyoni, who was given his full Reds debut.

Wataru Endō also featured in a rare start, accompanying Jarell Quansah at centre-back. With Andy Robertson suspended and Ibrahima Konaté and Conor Bradley still out injured, Slot made some significant changes in defence.

Liverpool saw out a 2-1 win over the Saints but the match could have ended with a huge blow after Quansah appeared to bring down Mateus Fernandes while on the attack. The Southampton midfielder was through on goal but Quansah denied his venture into the box. St Mary’s erupted into protest and the players argued it was foul but referee Simon Hooper waved away the appeals.

With no VAR in the Carabao Cup until the final, the on-pitch decision stood and ruled in favour of Quansah. However, former referee Christina Unkel thinks Hooper got the call wrong.

“Did he or did he not foul him? In this opinion yes, I am actually surprised the referee in this moment did not call the foul,” Unkel said on CBS. “It would have been a foul outside the penalty box but it would have been denying of a goalscoring opportunity (DOGSO).

“The question I was debating first was did he [Fernandes] slow down trying to draw that foul? The more I'm looking at the ball is up in the air, it's hovering, he naturally would be slowing and he's entitled to that space. Too much upper body contact so there is a foul there. If VAR was involved they would have done the same thing I would have done — probably over-analysed the play and brought it back to being simple, and then made the recommendation for a DOGSO red.”

Slot weighed in on the incident after the match and said that while he felt Quansah ‘could have made a different choice’, he didn’t believe it was a foul. Interim Southampton manager Simon Rusk also has his say on the situation.

“I've only seen it at one angle, at the moment. You can get it, you cannot get it, that one. I probably need to see a couple of more angles before I'm a little more conclusive about my opinion. My natural instinct was that it was a foul and maybe we didn't get the rub of the green with that so we move forwards.”