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Football

04th Feb 2018

Liverpool fans claim linesman celebrated penalty decision for Tottenham

Did you spot this?

Simon Lloyd

Clearly, Liverpool fans were a tad disappointed after their game with Tottenham on Sunday afternoon.

Leading from the early minutes, they were pegged back with 10 minutes to go thanks to a bonafide thunderbastard of a strike from Victor Wanyama.

Spurs then spurned the chance to take a lead as Harry Kane saw a penalty kick saved by Loris Karius, with Liverpool retaking the lead through Mo Salah as the game entered stoppage time.

That wasn’t the end of the scoring, though.

A second penalty was awarded, allowing Kane to atone for his earlier miss. 2-2.

As was evident from the boos which greeted referee Jon Moss and his officials as they left the Anfield pitch at full time, lots of Liverpool fans didn’t agree with the big decisions made around the penalty kicks. Lots more watching on TV felt the same, too.

While many Liverpool supporters vented their frustration on social media, a number of tweets picked up on the reaction of the linesman to the awarding of one of Kane’s penalties. Sadly, Premier League broadcast rules mean we can’t show you what actually happened without getting into bother, but plenty of tweets – such as the one featured in the screenshot below – do.

After consulting his linesman, Moss awarded the spot kick. As he turns back towards the penalty area, the linesman appears to pump his fist – enough for some Liverpool supporters to interpret as him ‘celebrating’ a big decision against their team.

Although some have defended the linesman, saying he was merely pleased with himself for making a big call, some Liverpool fans have responded by saying it’s unprofessional for an official to celebrate their own decisions.