Virgil van Dijk gives honest Lucas Bergvall red card verdict after Tottenham win over Liverpool

Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk believes it was "pretty clear" Lucas Bergvall should have been sent off moments before scoring the winner for Tottenham against the Reds on Wednesday night.

Bergvall struck an 86th-minute winner to earn Spurs a 1-0 victory over Liverpool and a slender advantage after a cagey Carabao Cup semi-final first leg. The teenager was perhaps lucky to be on the pitch, however, after the Swede caught Kostas Tsimikas late around one minute before scoring.

The already booked midfielder avoided a sending-off, though, and made his second life count with four minutes left. Dominic Solanke impressively held off Ibrahima Konate and teed up Bergvall to drill into the bottom corner from 12 yards to spark big celebrations.

Speaking after the match, Van Dijk felt the matchwinner should have been shown a second yellow card. Van Dijk told Sky Sports: “Listen, I think it was quite obvious that it was going to be a second yellow. I think it was pretty clear.

“It was a coincidence a minute later he scores the winner. But it is what it is. He (referee Stuart Attwell) made a mistake in my opinion and I told him that and he thinks maybe he didn’t but that’s quite obvious I think. Everyone on the sidelines knew exactly that it was supposed to be a yellow.

“The fact is he should have been off. There’s a linesman there, a fourth official there, there’s VAR, there is the referee and he doesn’t get a second yellow. I’m not saying this is the reason we lost tonight but it was a big moment in the game.”

Liverpool boss Arne Slot gave his view on the Bergvall situation, telling Sky Sports: “It didn’t feel to me as if we were ever going to lose here. You never know, in the moment things can change, and this is what we saw. The decision he (Stuart Attwell) made had a lot of impact on the result tonight. I think everyone would tell you this.

“Conceding (that goal), and even the player scoring it, that maybe should have had his second yellow card, is, not only for us, not ideal. I don’t know but I think maybe even the referee was like ‘is this really happening? Is he scoring now the goal?’

“The fourth official told me why he thought it wasn’t a second yellow, and of course he heard that probably from the referee. If you stop a counter-attack with a reckless challenge, he could still give a yellow, but he didn’t see it as a reckless challenge.”

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