Liverpool secured a hard-fought victory over Fulham on Sunday, thanks to Mo Salah’s first-half penalty. Referee Stuart Attwell awarded the spot kick after Darwin Nunez pinched the ball from Issa Diop in the Fulham penalty area and the centre-back stuck his leg out and made contact with the Uruguayan. However, after the final whistle, it emerged that Attwell had told a Fulham player ‘it wasn’t a penalty’.
Fulham midfielder Tom Cairney spoke to the club’s official website and said: “The ref made a decision, I thought he’d seen contact. I asked him on the pitch, ‘please just make sure they check it.’ He said they checked it, but he said second half to one of our players that it wasn’t a penalty, so it’s frustrating because it goes to other people [VAR] to make the correct decision.” Cairney added that it was a “kick in the you-know-whats” and described his version of events, saying: “Issa Diop hasn’t touched him, Nunez has taken another step and then gone over, and then you lose to something like that at Anfield which is frustrating when we’re trying to climb as high as we can.”
Fulham manager Marco Silva also alluded that the player Attwell spoke to in the second half was Diop, who conceded the foul leading to the penalty. Silva said: “I can tell you that Issa [Diop] spoke with the referee during the second half and I know what the referee said to Issa as well. To give a penalty like that, and after the VAR didn’t take that penalty, we cannot understand. It is difficult, really, to understand.” He added: “When Darwin touched the ball, he started to dive himself and touch the left leg into Issa. They are going to say that is harsh but the referee gave it and after the VAR cannot take it. It’s always the same conversation. It’s almost impossible for us to understand that decision.”
This was only Liverpool’s fourth penalty of the Premier League season, with Salah scoring his last two down the middle after missing his previous two from the spot. Despite Fulham’s protests, Liverpool held on for a crucial win at Anfield.