Liverpool told major referee decision vs Brighton was wrong by ex-PGMOL chief

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Liverpool star Florian Wirtz was caught high by Brighton player Diego Gomez, but the red card was not shown.Brighton's Diego Gomez was incorrectly not shown a red card for his high challenge on Florian Wirtz, says former head of the PGMOL, Keith Hackett. The incident occurred shortly before half-time of Liverpool's 2-0 victory over Brighton on SaturdayArne Slot's side had established a one-goal lead through Hugo Ekitike with just 46 seconds on the clock.

Pawson's on-field decision was yellow card and this was cleared by VAR.READ MORE: Szoboszlai, Gomez, Gakpo - Liverpool injury latest and return dates ahead of TottenhamREAD MORE: Five players Liverpool can buy with Mohamed Salah money as 'confidence' in Saudi transfer growsWithout the referee being sent to review the decision using the pitchside monitor, the Premier League Match Centre X account published the statement: "The referee’s call of yellow card to Gomez was checked and confirmed by VAR – with the challenge on Wirtz deemed not to be with excessive force and not serious foul play."However, this was the wrong conclusion and Gomez should have been sent off, former referees chief Hackett has told Football Insider."The Brighton player had every opportunity to pull out of this foul, and there is no question that the boot was leading at pace, waist-high, and fulfilled, in my opinion, serious foul play," he explained."The yellow card for this challenge was insufficient, and this incident should have seen the intervention of VAR, and a second look for the referee, who may, from his view, have had his vision of the incident compromised by the offending player."The outcome of the decision did not have any bearing on the result in the end as Ekitike scored his second goal of the match on the hour mark and Liverpool went on to win 2-0 at Anfield. He's not even there to go and win the ball."He was followed up by former Premier League referee Mike Dean, who added: "I think it's red.

The ball's gone up...The only thing I would say that they might look at is as he's gone up to come down, he may have caught him on the way down."There's no real force in it, but his foot shouldn't be that high. He's caught him in the stomach then he's kind of come down into his body.