Liverpool head coach Arne Slot didn't feel it was "controversial" that Cody Gakpo was awarded a spot kick during his side's 2-0 win over Bournemouth in the Premier League. Mohamed Salah tucked the penalty away during the first half on the south coast.
As a result of the win, Liverpool moved nine points ahead of Arsenal in the Premier League table. Salah added a brilliant second goal with around a quarter of an hour remaining in the match, but Gakpo was touched minimally for the opener.
"Controversy from who? Online, there is always controversy!" Slot said during his post-match press conference. "Especially from fans that are not in favor of Liverpool.
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"The only thing I can say — and I haven't seen it back — is that one of my players is on a clear one-vs-one with the goalkeeper, and he is falling down. So either he makes a dive or they touch him.
"And if they touch him, it is a penalty for me. This was such a clear one-on-one chance that, yeah, if he touched him — which I assume he did, otherwise VAR would have intervened."
Replays were inconclusive as to how much contact there was on Gakpo but the Dutch forward looked in real time to have been clipped. As Slot said, his player would likely have scored from that range had he stayed on his feet.
"I can come up with three, four or five examples when we didn't get the luck we deserved or we didn't get the decision we deserved," Slot added. "But that is always the difficult thing in football.
"If there is one in your favor, people will always say it is the luck for Liverpool or the one who is number one at the moment. For me, it has nothing to do with luck.
"It is a clear one-vs-one, and I can tell you if Cody Gakpo goes one-on-one with the goalkeeper, it is quite a big chance as well. If you are then tripped, it is a penalty and it is not that it is a penalty from a little push at a set-piece and it wasn't even a chance."
Liverpool.com says: Slot makes a good point. To be fair to Andoni Iraola, he didn't make a big fuss of the decision at the final whistle. His side, he admitted, was beaten by a very good Liverpool team that looks to be heading towards the Premier League title.
