Virgil van Dijk called out Abdoulaye Doucoure and Michael Oliver following the mass brawl at the end of Liverpool's 2-2 draw with Everton. The Reds dropped two points in the final Merseyside derby at Goodison Park after James Tarkowski scored in the 98th minute to secure a share of the spoils for the hosts. But things turned ugly after the final whistle when Doucoure and Curtis Jones clashed after the former had celebrated in front of the travelling Liverpool fans. Players from both sides piled in as Doucoure and Jones were sent off.
Arne Slot and his assistant, Sipke Hulshoff, were also shown straight red cards by Oliver on a dramatic night. But Van Dijk didn't hold back after the final whistle on Doucoure or Oliver, who he felt failed to get the incident under control. "It was a very big provocation from one certain player," Van Dijk said when he was quizzed about the post-match drama by Match of the Day. "I think Abdoulaye Doucoure wanted to provoke our fans, I think that is what I saw and Curtis Jones didn't think it was the right thing to do.
"We all saw it and reacted as a team as we were able to do. You know what happens nowadays, it becomes one big tussle. Then it is not me who has to deal with it, it is the referee and today I am not sure he had it fully under control.". Slot was visibly unhappy with Tarkowski's equalising goal, something that former Toffees defender, Phil Jagielka, referenced on TNT Sports by pointing out a nudge in the box beforehand.
The defender's last-gasp intervention was enough to restore parity after Alexis Mac Allister and Mohamed Salah had wiped out Beto's opener. And Van Dijk couldn't hide his disappointment at throwing away two precious points in the title race. He added: "Very tough [to take]. To concede an equaliser that late is always disappointing. We saw the celebrations they had in the end so we know how much it meant for them but the fact is it was disappointing for us. We take the point and move onto Wolves now.
"We came back, got to 2-1 but unfortunately we couldn't get it over the line. We had to keep fighting, we kept doing that but in the end it wasn't enough to get it over the line.". Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
