Diogo Jota has apologised to Oliver Skipp over the foul which saw the Liverpool forward booked in the closing minutes of Sunday’s 4-3 win over Tottenham.
The 26-year-old caught the Spurs midfielder on the head as his boot was raised in trying to win the ball, with the latter soon being substituted as he incurred a gash.
The Reds attacker was honest enough to subsequently communicate his regret over the incident, although he agreed with Paul Tierney over the decision to show a yellow card rather than a red.
Speaking to Premier League Productions (via 90min), Jota said: “It was not good, obviously it’s not my intention to cause any harm to him. But unfortunately, it happened.
“I asked him ‘sorry’, that’s all I could do after that bad tackle but I also think it’s not a red because I touched the ball and there was no intention to cause him any harm.”
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These are very fair words from the Liverpool man, who knows that it was far from his finest moment in a red shirt but will feel he had every right to go for the ball, even if the manner in which he did was a bit reckless.
Skipp did go into Jota’s space in contesting for possession and was unfortunate to be caught in the face, but he too must realise he was probably lucky to be on the pitch at that point.
The Tottenham midfielder was guilty of an awful lunge on Luis Diaz in the first half on Sunday and could easily have been sent off, but somehow Tierney and his team of officials didn’t even blow for a foul.
As for the Reds’ number 20, he’s done the right thing by publicly acknowledging his initial wrongdoing and apologising to the Spurs player, so ideally that’ll now draw a line under the matter.