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Michael Owen 'astonished' by Aston Villa decision which impacted Liverpool result
Pundit Michael Owen has criticised the 'blatant' mistake which VAR missed and which could've changed the complexion of Aston Villa's meeting with Liverpool on Saturday night. Villa lost their fourth straight game at Anfield following goals from Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah, but they had a penalty shout in the second half.
With the score at that stage 1-0 and with the match finely poised, centre half Pau Torres went to ground in the penalty area when up for a set piece, under pressure from Liverpool substitute Conor Bradley, who had replaced the injured Trent Alexander-Arnold. VAR conducted a check, but decided that no foul had been committed on Torres.
Owen, who spent 13 years at Liverpool and where he scored 158 goals, was left bemused by the officiating which led to the decision not to award Villa and Torres a penalty which, at that point, might've turned the game on its head. Indeed he described the foul as 'blatant' and the decision to not award the penalty 'astonishing'.
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"It’s a penalty, you can’t do that. There’s just a blatant pull, Pau Torres is there at the front post, gets dragged out of that area with a shirt pull," he said. "If the ball goes to the back post and floats over everybody, then I think turn a blind eye to that, didn’t affect the play. That is a blatant pull. I’m astonished, once that went to VAR, astonished they didn’t give a penalty.
"I think that’s a stonewall penalty, personally. I don’t think there’s any debate in that, he literally pulls him out. It doesn’t matter if he’s pulling him for one minute or one second, he drags him out of it."
