The reaction from Jurgen Klopp and his Liverpool squad to Rodri’s infamous handball against Everton in 2022 would’ve been identical to every Reds fan who watched that notorious incident.
During a neck-and-neck title race with Manchester City two seasons ago, Pep Guardiola’s side edged a 1-0 win at Goodison Park that February, but the result was overshadowed by a blatant offence from the Spaniard which somehow didn’t result in a penalty, even after a VAR review.
The LFC manager was reflecting on that incident in an interview with The Anfield Wrap, sharing how he and his players reacted when they were watching it while en route to London for the Carabao Cup final the following day.
Klopp recalled: “That situation was really crazy. The whole team was on a bus and Everton-City was on telly. When that situation happened, the whole bus was like, ‘HANDBALL! [jumps up with arms aloft for effect] Wait, he’s not giving it? What?'”
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To this day, it still boggles the mind how the officials on duty for that Everton-Man City game failed to penalise Rodri for one of the clearest deliberate handball offences the Premier League has ever seen.
While the outcome of a full nine-month season can’t be pinned down to one incident, the fact that Guardiola’s team edged Liverpool by a point in the final table left a particularly bitter taste when thinking back to that controversy at Goodison Park.
Two years on, unfortunately refereeing standards in the English top flight haven’t really improved.
You can view Klopp’s comments on the Rodri handball below (from 18:00), via The Anfield Wrap on YouTube: