Liverpool players slammed Sevilla for their aggressive approach to last night’s friendly match at Boston which Sevilla won 2-1.
Liverpool suffered their second successive pre-season defeat after losing 2-1 to Sevilla at Fenway Park which is owned by Liverpool’s owners Fenway Sports Group.
Sevilla opened the scoring after 37 minutes thanks to Nolito who shot brilliantly past Liverpool goalie Andy Lonergan. In the 44th minute, Diego Carlos and Daniel Carrico were unable to clear Trent Alexander-Arnold’s corner and the ball fell to Divock Origi who found the net to level things up for Liverpool.
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Sevilla won the match thanks to a late winner from Alejandro Pozo who cashed in on a pass from Munir El Haddadi.
However, the match had a few bizarre tackles from the Sevilla players. First, Ever Banega hit Harry Wilson in the jaw with his elbow before Joris Gnagnon made a horrible challenge on Yasser Larouci which saw the 18-year old being stretchered off and Gnagnon receiving a straight red card.
The Liverpool players slammed Sevilla and Gnagnon in particular after the game. James Milner said as quoted by the Telegraph: “There were some disgraceful tackles. “We know it was a friendly but you don’t see many red cards in a friendly. If you want to foul, pull a shirt. Don’t take a young lad by the knee. Seeing it again it is a disgrace.”
Virgil van Dijk also did not hesitate to speak out his opinion on Gnagnon’s challenge, saying: “To put in a tackle like that, especially on a young player who has been doing so well in pre-season, I think it says something about him. You have to just deal with it but obviously you don’t want to have injuries in pre-season. Hopefully it is not that bad for him.”
Jurgen Klopp told Liverpool’s official website that he hoped Larouci’s injury is not as serious as it looked at first. Klopp said: “Let me say how the situation is with Yasser; it looks like he was lucky but, of course, how it always is with these things we have to wait a little bit. He couldn’t keep on playing, so that’s the first not-so-good sign but in the dressing room it was OK, similar how it looks to Harry [Wilson].
“Harry got a knock on his jaw and a finger in his eye, so not too cool. He should be OK as well but couldn’t carry on as well. That’s the situation.”
Klopp added about Larouci’s injury: “He hit him full throttle and, in that moment, [if it was] a little bit different position where he hit him then it’s done. He rolls… he is a sports boy so that was OK, nothing happened there. I don’t know 100 per cent. It looks like he was lucky but I only spoke quickly to the Doc and that’s what he said, but we have to see.”
Gnagnon later took to twitter to apologise for his challenge on Larouci. He wrote: “I would like to publicly apologise to Liverpool, the family of the player and the supporters. It was a heinous act on my part for whatever reason and should not be seen on a football field. All my prayers are with the player and the family”
“I would like to publicly apologise to Liverpool, the family of the player and the supporters. It was a heinous act on my part for whatever reason and should not be seen on a football field. All my prayers are with the player and the family” https://t.co/kdIhNX5Aqv
— Sevilla FC (@SevillaFC_ENG) July 22, 2019