Arne Slot reveals referee's explanation for not sending off Lucas Bergvall in Spurs defeat
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Lucas Bergvall wasn’t sent off against Liverpool and was able to score Tottenham’s winning goal because the referee didn’t deem his second foul to be reckless, according to Arne Slot. Tottenham claimed a controversial 1-0 win in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final on Wednesday night thanks to Bergvall’s late finish from Dominic Solanke’s pass. The 86th-minute strike came after the 18-year-old midfielder had escaped a second booking for a poor challenge on Kostas Tsimikas.
Liverpool were furious with the decision by referee Stuart Attwell, who played advantage to the away side but chose not to dismiss Bergvall. Slot’s assistant Sipke Hulshoff was booked for his protests and Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk made his grievances clear after the full-time whistle.
Tsimikas was still off the pitch when Bergvall beat Alisson for the game’s only goal, giving Liverpool a real sense of injustice to dwell upon as Slot suffered just his second loss in 29 games as manager. Asked by Sky Sports if he’d spoken to the referee, Slot replied: "No, the fourth official told me why he thought it wasn't a second yellow and, of course, he heard that probably from the referee.
“What we can say about it is that he said he (Bergvall) didn't stop the counter-attack. Every manager would prefer a second yellow to a counter-attack that goes on without one player and that still needs to go 80 yards, maybe. “The second thing is that if you stop a counter-attack with a reckless challenge then he could still give a yellow, but he didn’t see it as a reckless challenge – and that’s the second thing we can debate about. It is what it is. The positive thing for us – we hate to lose, I hate to lose – but if you have to lose, it’s better to lose when there is still a second leg.”.
