The final Goodison Park Merseyside Derby ended in drama and following the game, Virgil van Dijk assessed referee Michael Oliver’s performance and perfectly summed up how poor the official was all game.
The scenes at Goodison Park on Wednesday evening were chaotic and emotional for all the wrong reasons.
It’s hard not to feel aggrieved as a Liverpool fan given the state of the refereeing decisions on the night. Michael Oliver appeared to do everything in his power to give Everton a helping hand.
The opening goal from Everton came from a free-kick Michael Oliver awarded Iliman Ndiaye for a dive. Worse yet, the referee was standing just a few feet away.
For the winner, Ibrahima Konate was fouled by Everton striker Beto and despite a VAR check that lasted a few minutes, the referees checked only the offside call and glossed over the Liverpool centre-back being barged out of the way.
Virgil van Dijk reacts to Everton chaos
Speaking after Abdoulaye Doucoure, Curtis Jones, Arne Slot and assistant coach Sipke Hulshoff were sent off, Virgil van Dijk said that Michael Oliver “never had the game under control.”
Speaking to TNT Sports, van Dijk said that although Doucoure “wanted to “provoke” Liverpool fans, Curtis Jones’ reaction “wasn’t the right thing to do”.
"We all know this is their cup final."
Virgil van Dijk reacts to Liverpool's draw at Goodison Park ?
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“They are entitled to celebrate the goal,” said van Dijk.
“But Doucoure wanted to provoke our fans and Curtis thought that wasn’t the right thing to do. Then there was a tussle.
“The referee didn’t have the game under control, I said that to him. It is a factor. Both teams had to deal with it.”
Speaking to Liverpool’s media team after fulltime, van Dijk continued “I think the feeling right now is obviously disappointment, that’s pretty obvious, and it will be for today and tonight. But from tomorrow we focus on Wolves and we try to get the three points then and so on and so on.
“We all know that we have a lot of games up until the international break so there is no point to dwell too much on this result. We wanted to win here, we could have won here, maybe we should have won here. But it is what it is – we take it and move on.”
