Liverpool star Sadio Mane accused of diving to win late penalty as Reds sink Leicester
SADIO MANE was accused of diving to win the last-gasp penalty that handed Liverpool a crucial victory.
Marc Albrighton made contact with Mane in stoppage time but the Reds forward threw himself dramatically to the turf.
James Milner converted the spot-kick but Foxes scorer James Maddison fumed: “It was very soft. The contact doesn’t warrant the way Mane went down.”
Referee Chris Kavanagh’s decision to award the spot-kick was not overturned by VAR and Milner scored to maintain Liverpool’s perfect start to the season.
Foxes manager Brendan Rodgers said: “Mane made the most of the contact.
“If it had not been given by the referee, it would not have been overturned by VAR.
‘TOUGH TO TAKE’
“When the referee gives decisions it is hard for them to overrule it.”
BBC pundit Kevin Kilbane was even more damning and said: “Mane dived to win the penalty.”
Leicester thought they had snatched a point at Anfield through Maddison’s 80th-minute equaliser.
Maddison admitted: “It’s so tough to take when you concede so late. We are a really disappointed camp.”
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Passions ran high and Leicester’s Ayoze Perez was at the heart of a scuffle after the final whistle.
But Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp said: “The penalty was obviously a penalty.
“Without luck we cannot win the amount of games we have won but over the 90 minutes we deserved it, we deserved the three points.
“James Milner held his nerve and that was superb.”
Klopp was furious about Hamza Choudhury’s late foul on Mo Salah that forced the Egyptian out of the game.
The Liverpool manager said: “How did he only get a yellow card?
“Mo limped off the pitch. That’s hard. It was done to slow Mo down and that is not OK.”
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SPOT OF FORTUNE
By Mark Halsey, The Whistleblower
IT was a very, very generous decision to award Liverpool a penalty when Sadio Mane went down in the box against Leicester.
We have those kinds of challenges all over the pitch and there are no free-kicks.
There’s minimal contact but why doesn’t he go down straight away?
VAR will never overturn the decision and if ref Chris Kavanagh doesn’t give the penalty, scored by James Milner, then they wouldn’t overturn that either.
So one has to ask, why are our refs not reviewing the monitor?
If he looks at it again I think he would have a doubt.
We also saw a melee at the end and I think both Liverpool and Leicester will be charged for failing to control their players.