Liverpool launch complaint to referees’ chiefs over Virgil van Dijk’s ‘duck’ disallowed goal against Man City – and say decision was AGAINST the laws of the game

Liverpool have lodged a complaint with referee chiefs over Virgil van Dijk’s goal against Manchester City on Sunday.

The Premier League champions suffered a good defeat and Arne Slot did not blame this decision for his team’s defeat. But he wondered what might have happened if the captain’s header, which would have made it 1-1, had been allowed to continue.

Instead, it was annulled following a VAR review because Liverpool left-back Andrew Robertson was on the line and was ruled to have interfered with City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma. The Scotsman was offside and moved out of the way of Van Dijk’s effort.

Law 11 of the Football Association handbook states that a player in an offside position ‘solely involved in active play will be penalized by: interfering with play by playing or touching a ball that has been passed or touched by a team-mate…’

It continues: ‘…or interfering with an opponent by: Preventing an opponent from playing or being able to play the ball by clearly obstructing the opponent’s line of sight; or challenging the opponent for the ball; or attempting to play a ball that is clearly near where that action affects the opponent, or making a blatant move that clearly affects the opponent’s ability to play the ball.’

Daily Mail Sport understands that Liverpool have contacted referee body PGMOL, led by former midfielder Howard Webb, this morning to question the penalty decision given to Robertson.

Robertson (second from left) was judged to have affected Gianluigi Donnarumma’s (far left) ability to play the ball as he evaded Van Dijk’s header.

Liverpool deny Donnarumma was hampered by Robertson’s presence (right)

The Reds do not accept the claim that the decision was made for subjective reasons. They believe that the text of the 11th law is based on criteria. Liverpool therefore asked PGMOL to clarify which elements of those criteria were met.

Liverpool deny that Donnarumma was hampered by Robertson’s presence and that the Scotland captain was not in the goalkeeper’s line of sight. The club spent time reviewing the footage from various angles.

Speaking after the 3-0 defeat, Slot said a “clear and obvious mistake” prevented his team from drawing level in the first half but the Dutchman was reluctant to blame that decision for the defeat.

The Liverpool boss said: ‘He did not interfere in any way with what the goalkeeper could do.

‘Straight after the game someone showed me the goal the same referee had allowed: City’s goal against Wolves last season (with Bernardo Silva on the line for John Stones’ header).

‘So it took the linesman 13 seconds to raise his flag to indicate offside. So clearly there was communication, but as I said, this (goal) could have affected the game positively for us.

‘I would like to emphasize that being 2-0 down in the first half fairly reflects the course of the game.

Donnarumma tries in vain to save Van Dijk’s disallowed header

Van Dijk celebrates with his teammates after scoring – but the joy was short-lived

Speaking post-match, Liverpool boss Arne Slot was adamant Robertson did not interfere

‘This can happen in football. In my opinion, not giving this goal was a wrong decision, but I won’t say that’s why we lost the match.

‘If City had continued to play like them after 1-1, we would have struggled too.’