Premier League explains why VAR denied Liverpool decision which left Jurgen Klopp fuming

Jurgen Klopp was left fuming on the sidelines as Liverpool were given a scare in their Premier League title pursuit against Southampton at St Mary's.

The Reds could afford nothing but a win to take the race with Manchester City for the top-flight crown to the final day of the season on Sunday.

But Liverpool, who made nine changes from the FA Cup final triumph over Chelsea, were hit with a huge setback on the south coast.

They fell behind to the Saints in the 13th minute when Nathan Redmond curled home a fine goal.

However, in the build-up to Redmond's intervention, the Reds were not awarded a free-kick when Diogo Jota claimed to be fouled by Southampton defender Lyanco.

On-field referee Martin Atkinson allowed play to continue, though, and Klopp was incensed afterwards.

Former Liverpool striker Michael Owen admitted he was surprised that VAR did not intervene, while many supporters also felt the same.

What’s been said

However, LiverpoolWorld understands that VAR did take a look at the challenge and cleared it. That was because it was believed no clear and obvious error was made.

Luckily, the decision did not matter in the end as Takumi Minamino and Joel Matip ensured the Reds battled from behind to win 2-1.

Still, in his post-match press conference, Klopp felt Atkinson repeated a similar mistake from when Liverpool drew 1-1 against Manchester United in October 2019.

He told Sky Sports: “For me, it was a foul. But we have been in a similar situation when Martin Atkinson has not given a foul on one of our players and (Marcus) Rashford scored a goal, it was exactly the same.

“Afterwards, he said yes we could have spotted that, but who cares?”