Darwin Nunez scored one goal and won a penalty for another after surviving a VAR red card review as Liverpool came from behind to beat Southampton 3-1 at Anfield and extend their lead at the top of the table to 16 points.
Nunez aimed a kick at Kyle Walker-Peters in first-half injury time but was shown only a yellow card by referee Lewis Smith, refereeing just his sixth Premier League game, before VAR Derek Eaton ruled there had been no clear and obvious error.
Southampton were superb across the first 45 minutes and found themselves ahead at the time of Nunez’s indiscretion, after Will Smallbone had shocked Anfield moments earlier by slotting in an opener following a mix-up between Alisson and Virgil Van Dijk.
Any grievances Southampton may have had at the interval over Nunez’s continued involvement would have been compounded when he pulled the Reds level six minutes into the second half, slotting home after Luis Diaz had isolated Kyle Walker-Peters out wide.
Liverpool had flown out of the blocks from the interval following the half-time introduction of Andrew Robertson, Alexis Mac Allister and Harvey Elliott.
But Southampton were equally masters of their own downfall, and less than two minutes later gave the Reds the chance to turn the game on its head when Smallbone clumsily brought down Nunez in his own box.
Mo Salah needed no second invitation to net his 26th goal in 29 Premier League games this season, before making that 27 with another from the spot late on following Yukinari Sugawara’s handball.
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Paul Merson counts how many times the referee checks VAR before awarding Liverpool a penalty, which Mohamed Salah went on to score.
That put the shine on a victory which sent Liverpool 16 points clear at the top of the table – with Southampton left to wonder what might have been had Nunez walked.
Dean: Nunez yellow the right decision
Former Premier League referee Mike Dean on Soccer Saturday:
“I think the right decision is a yellow. You see it from another angle and it’s knee on knee.
“From the normal TV angle, it looks like he’s completely launched him – and he hasn’t.”
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Mike Dean discusses why he believes Southampton’s goal against Liverpool was offside and if Darwin Nunez was lucky to escape a red.
Slot: First-half performance was warning sign for PSG second leg
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Liverpool head coach Arne Slot was disappointed with his side’s performance but was pleased nonetheless that they picked up the three points with an unconvincing 3-1 win over lowly Southampton.
Liverpool head coach Arne Slot:
“It was a very poor performance in the first half. Maybe if you see the highlights you might think we had three or four chances, but we weren’t in the game at all and it wasn’t a surprise we conceded a goal.
“The first half was a warning sign, hopefully. We’ve experienced already, in Paris, that the intensity, the way they play – it was very high for us on that night. If I compare it with the intensity we played with today, it’s not one, two, three, four or five steps, it’s probably six, seven or eight towards the intensity of PSG.
“We found a way to win it in the second half. I tried everything before the game, in the media, in my meetings to make clear how difficult a game it was going to be and how we had to play on a different intensity level than we did against PSG.
“Maybe to get used to that level of intensity we’re going to experience again. But in the end, I had to make some hard decisions at half-time to create a certain anger with the players. The ones who came on were very important for us.”
