Virgil van Dijk and Arne Slot frustrated as Liverpool lose to Tottenham thanks to controversial Lucas Bergvall goal

Lucas Bergvall handed Tottenham the advantage in their Carabao Cup semi-final tie against Liverpool, with his first goal for Spurs giving his side a 1-0 win in the first leg, but his effort left The Reds extremely frustrated.

There was disappointment in the Liverpool camp that the Swedish teenager was still on the pitch to slot Dominic Solanke’s pull-back past Alisson at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Just two minutes before the already-booked Bergvall found the net, he chopped down Kostas Tsimikas but avoided a second yellow card.

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Referee Stuart Attwell, who earlier made history when announcing a VAR decision to the crowd, did not pull out a card and it proved costly for Arne Slot’s side.

Tsimikas required treatment, which left his team down to 10 players as Tottenham broke at pace to score the only goal of the tie.

The Liverpool boss was quick to confront fourth official Tim Robinson, while Slot’s assistant, Sipke Hulshoff, was shown a yellow card for his reaction.

Captain Virgil van Dijk was also left baffled by Bergvall being allowed to stay on the pitch.

"Listen, I think it was quite obvious that it was going to be a second yellow," he told Sky Sports. "It was pretty clear.

"A minute later he [Bergvall] scores the winner but listen, it is what it is.

"He [referee Stuart Attwell] made a mistake in my opinion, and I told him that. He thinks maybe he didn’t but it was quite obvious, I think, and everyone on the sideline knew exactly that it was supposed to be a yellow.

"The fact is that he should’ve been off. There’s a linesman there, there’s a fourth official there, there’s VAR, there’s a referee and he doesn’t get a second yellow.

"I’m not saying this is the reason that we lost tonight but it was a big moment in the game."

It had a big influence - Slot

Slot had calmed down by the time he spoke to the media after the match, and gave a measured response when questioned about the game-changing moment.

"It had a big influence on the game," Slot said. "It didn’t feel to me as if we were ever going to lose here.

"You never know, in a moment, things can change and this is what we saw.

"The decision he made had a lot of impact on the result tonight and there’s nothing else I can say about it."

Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou was lacking in sympathy for his opponents as he said it was a situation his team had been on the other side of on many occasions.

Asked if Bergvall was lucky to be on the pitch, Postecoglou said: "He wasn’t.

"Those are the rules. We’ve had to cop it for the last six weeks and abided by the rules."

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