A round-up of your best-performing Liverpool stories for Friday, December 15.
Union SG claimed victory against a youthful Liverpool team on Thursday night.
There was little riding on the match for the travelling side, who had already qualified for the Europa League Round of 16, though any professional will feel a sense of pride even in a dead rubber clash.
This is evidenced by Ibrahima Konate’s bemused reaction to the hosts’ opening goal, which seemingly was offside despite an extensive VAR review ruling it legal.
Konate was the last man on the far side as Mohamed Amoura raced through on goal and fired beyond Caoimhin Kelleher and took to social media to air his disbelief.
Ibrahima Konate is seemingly bemused by the officials’ decision to award Union SG’s opening goal against Liverpool on Thursday evening.
The Reds fell to a 2-1 loss in Brussels with all of the goals scored before half-time. Mohamed Amoura put the hosts ahead, Jarell Quansah equalised with his first strike for the club then finally Cameron Puertas grabbed what turned out to be the winner.
VAR did move to deny the hosts a third goal midway through the second half, however it was its contribution to allow the first that has turned most heads.
The goalscorer Amoura raced beyond Quansah, latched onto a through pass from strike partner Gustaf Nilsson and put past Caoimhin Kelleher. Konate was covering the far side and the officials adjudged Amoura to be onside against the Frenchman following a thorough check.
Ultimately the result means little in Liverpool’s campaign. Before tonight they were already through to the competition’s Round of 16 as Group E’s winners, missing out the Play-Off round in the process, but for any player it comes down to a matter of pride to compete even in matches like this one.
Reviewing a still image of the incident on social media less than hour after full-time, the 24-year-old posted a short but clear message to X, formerly known as Twitter:
A laughing face emoji, followed by a facepalm emoji and the words: “… okok” was what Konate chose to summarise the decision, expressing his puzzlement.
The defender played the opening 45 minutes before being substituted for Joe Gomez at half-time. Neither picked up any fresh injury troubles, which will be welcome bonus for Jurgen Klopp heading into the derby against Manchester United on Sunday.
