Konate was at risk of seeing red
The center back was already on a yellow card when he committed a foul.
Van Dijk admits Reds were fortunate
WHAT HAPPENED? During Liverpool’s victory over their neighbours at Anfield, Konate was booked for the second time for a foul on Everton striker Beto. The Frenchman had already received a booking for the same infraction. The decision not to send off the defender left Everton manager Sean Dyche fuming, and Van Dijk feels the Reds were fortunate.
WHAT THEY SAID: “A bit of luck? Definitely. What can I say? He could have given it, he didn’t give it. We should have some luck. So what can I say? Nothing else. I think with tackles and stuff, that’s for the referees to judge,” he told reporters. “We wanted to avoid the referee and make sure we did not receive yellow cards for yelling or saying,’ref yellow for this,’ especially after the second I noticed that.” That is something that we can affect, and it is something that we ought to avoid. Considering the circumstances, we performed that extremely well. As I previously mentioned, we were fortunate to avoid giving up a second yellow card to Ibou; he is aware of it, but we move on.”
THE BIGGER PICTURE: After Ashley Young was sent off in the first half, Everton was down to 10 players. Mohamed Salah scored two late goals for Liverpool, one in stoppage time and the other in the 75th minute, to help them win the derby 2-0.
WHAT NEXT FOR LIVERPOOL? The Reds are quickly back in action on Thursday night when their Europa League group stage resumes against Toulouse at Anfield.
