'Clear' - West Ham man says there were two wrong referee decisions in 5-1 loss to Liverpool at Anfield

West Ham United manager Julen Lopetegui felt West Ham did not deserve to get beaten 5-1 by Liverpool at Anfield on Wednesday night as he pointed to two referee decisions that had a major impact on the Carabao Cup clash.

The Hammers took the lead as Max Kilman rose highest from a corner to nod the ball into a dangerous area which resulted in a goalmouth scramble and ended with the ball hitting off Jarell Quansah’s leg and going into the back of the net. Liverpool equalised through Diogo Jota as he rose highest to head home from Federico Chiesa’s scissor kick. Jota put Liverpool ahead early in the second half before Mohamed Salah made it 3-1 with a late Cody Gakpo double rubbing salt in the wounds for the visitors.

West Ham believed Gakpo was offside in the build up to Jota’s equaliser and early in the second half felt they should have had a penalty when the ball struck the arm of Joe Gomez, although the Liverpool defender did have his arm by his side when the ball made contact. Lopetegui was also booked later in the game when the Hammers felt they should have had another penalty when Kostas Tsmikas blocked a cross. The ball hit the defender’s stomach first before coming off the bottom of his elbow.

There was no VAR in use, as Danny Ings saw an early opening goal chalked off for offside but replays suggested the linesman had made the correct decision on the field.

“I don’t think that we deserve this score. I think that we have been in the match, in a lot of moments, even better than them,” reflected the West Ham manager. “I prefer not to talk a lot about the referee because it’s very clear for me today. The key decision is that one goal is offside but [it] can happen, it’s one mistake. The second one was a penalty that happened. In the end, the most important thing is when we have chances to score, we didn’t and have to improve.

“To win this kind of matches, you have to stay close. That only mistake we made in the first half, we suffered. After the third goal and the red card it was much more difficult. The last part of the match was very bad for us.”