The Carabao Cup final ended with Liverpool’s victory. Despite a number of injuries, the team was unable to use many of its regulars, and had to use young players as substitutes, Liverpool was able to demonstrate its collective strength and win its first title of the season.
However, Chris Kavanagh, who was the referee for the match, repeatedly ruled in favor of Chelsea. For similar fouls, Liverpool was shown a yellow card, while Chelsea was not blamed. The refereeing was visibly inexplicable.
Particularly controversial are the scene of the first goal, which was cancelled out because Wataru Endo was in an offside position, and Moises Caicedo’s accidental but dangerous tackle on the ankle. Keith Hackett, a former Premier League referee, wrote that both decisions were unfair to Liverpool.
“The decision to rule out Virgil van Dijk’s opener at Wembley was incredibly harsh. Wataru Endo should not have been flagged offside and was merely standing his ground with Levi Colwill.”
“It goes back to the inconsistency of decision making among the VAR and officials and until that is improved we are going to witness these flashpoints. This happens every week up and down the country, where holding offences go unpunished.”
“Wataru Endo stood his ground – space is not owned by anyone on a football field – and there was nowhere he could go. Where is he expected to stand? The law says that an offence occurs when a player in an offside position interferes with the movement of the opponent towards the ball but I am not sure Colwill was getting to Van Dijk and he appeared to run into the Liverpool midfielder just as much as Endo made contact with him.”
“Liverpool’s sense of injustice does not stop there, however, and by the time Van Dijk scored they should have been playing 10 men anyway.”
“Moises Caicedo’s foul on Ryan Gravenberch in the first half was reckless and it endangered the safety of an opponent. Again, there’s plenty of inconsistency here: you saw on Saturday that Harry Maguire escaped a sending off for Manchester United but Billy Gilmour was dismissed for Brighton.”
“Yes, it is a final and you want it to remain 11 vs 11 at all times, but it was a sending off offence. Chelsea got away with one there.”
The Telegraph