In the 4th round of Europa League, Liverpool surprisingly lost 2-3 to Toulouse. Meanwhile, AS Roma of coach Mourinho also lost 0-2 at Slavia Prague.
 |
| Liverpool still tops Group E of the Europa League 2023/24 with 9 points after 4 matches. (Source: The Mirror) |
Liverpool's only defeat of the season against Tottenham was marred by controversy over VAR, with the English governing body of refereeing and administration (PGMOL) eventually having to apologise for "serious human error".
In the fourth round of the Europa League group stage last night, Liverpool once again suffered a blow from VAR. Referee Georgi Kabakov's controversial decision to disallow a goal in the last minute caused Liverpool to suffer a shocking 2-3 defeat against French side Toulouse.
Although the defeat to Toulouse did not affect Liverpool's top position, coach Klopp once again considered VAR as the "enemy" of the team. He affirmed that VAR continued to make mistakes when denying The Kop's goal.
Returning to the match, Liverpool appeared quite subjective when entering the match with a reserve team. This made them pay the price. The Kop played passively against a weaker opponent.
Toulouse took a 2-0 lead with goals from Aron Donnum and Thijs Dallinga in the 36th and 58th minutes. In the 74th minute, Liverpool reduced the score to 1-2 after an own goal by Cristian Casseres.
However, Toulouse quickly restored the two-goal gap with a goal from Frank Magri. In the 89th minute, Diogo Jota rekindled hope when he scored to reduce the score to 2-3 after a beautiful dribble and finish.
The drama of the match was pushed up when in the 90+7 minute, Jarell Quansah put the ball into the Toulouse net. However, after consulting VAR, the referee denied this goal because he determined that Mac Allister let the ball touch his hand in the previous situation. The match ended with a score of 2-3.
With this result, Liverpool still tops Group E with 9 points after 4 matches. Toulouse moves up to second place with 7 points. Next are Saint-Gilloise (4 points) and LASK Linz (3 points). The Kop still has a great chance of advancing as they only need to beat the bottom team LASK Linz in the next match.
In the match in Group G, AS Roma also suffered a shocking loss to Slavia Prague with a score of 0-2. This was a bad match for the "Wolves" as they were completely helpless against the home team.
The Czech Republic club scored two goals by Jurecka (minute 50) and Masopust (minute 74). After this victory, Sparta Prague surpassed AS Roma to take the top spot in the group. Both teams have 9 points but Sparta Prague has a better head-to-head difference. Both teams are likely to win tickets to the next round as they leave Servette (4 points) and Sheriff Tiraspol (1 point).
In another match, West Ham had a successful "revenge" when defeating Olympiacos with a score of 1-0. They are leading Group A with the same 9 points as Freiburg but with a better goal difference.
Another English representative, Brighton, continued to win their second match against Ajax with a score of 2-0. Thanks to that, the "Seagulls" jumped to second place in Group B with 7 points. The group leader is Marseille with 8 points. AEK Athens (4 points) and Ajax (2 points) are ranked in the bottom two positions respectively.
Source
Comment (0)