West Ham manager Julen Lopetegui took issue with two refereeing decisions from his team’s defeat to Liverpool on Wednesday night, and one pundit has sided with him on both incidents.
Speaking to Sky Sports after the game, the Irons boss insisted that Cody Gakpo was offside in the lead-up to Diogo Jota’s equalising goal and also that Joe Gomez was culpable of a deliberate handball in the Reds’ penalty area during the second half.
Former France defender Frank Leboeuf took a similar view, saying on ESPN FC: “I don’t know if it would’ve changed anything, but I have to say that there was an offside for Diogo Jota’s first goal and it could have been a penalty for a handball by Gomez.
“Because there’s no VAR during the League Cup, we’ll never know; but as soon as Liverpool equalised, we didn’t see West Ham anymore and that’s very worrying for Lopetegui.”
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Admittedly Gakpo did appear to be just ahead of Vladimir Coufal when the ball was played to him in the lead-up to Jota’s equaliser, and the goal probably would’ve been chalked off had VAR been in operation.
However, we don’t agree with Lopetegui on the Gomez handball decision, as the Liverpool defender had his arms by his side and the ball struck his torso first.
On a different occasion, those calls might’ve gone against us and the end result would’ve been a lot closer, and admittedly the final scoreline wasn’t reflective of West Ham’s efforts on the night.
Nonetheless, their manager must’ve been disappointed with how his team crumbled in the final 20 minutes, and it was to the Reds’ credit that they emphatically put their opponents to the sword after those refereeing decisions.
You can view Leboeuf’s comments below (from 2:26), via ESPN UK on YouTube:
Wash n gone,not off side when ball was kicked and look at defenders arm, penalty, no chance Joe’s arm was by his side ,ball hit him never moved his arm, back to learning the rules of the game for you I’m afraid 🤣🤣🤣