Sadio Mane was both lucky and unlucky on Saturday lunchtime against Crystal Palace.
On one hand, you could say that he was wrongly booked for a dive and then denied a penalty, before not getting a blatant free-kick.
On the other, you could say he was booked for diving and should have been sent off after grabbing the ball following a ‘foul’ that wasn’t given.
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We do think Mane should have been awarded a penalty and that he was obstructed before picking the ball up in the second-half, but that doesn’t stop the fact he did it being very foolish – especially considering he was already on a yellow.
The Senegalese though is convinced he did nothing wrong.
“Honestly, I was thinking he was going to give a penalty,” Mane told the Liverpool Echo.
“He didn’t give it but I was not focused on that because it’s part of what can happen. I could have been lucky but it’s part of football. I was doing my best and in the end I scored a goal.
“I was not worried (about the handball). I was surprised he didn’t give the foul but in my mind it was not a red card or something because I was sure that this was a foul.
“I’m someone who believes in myself, and I believe in the qualities of my team-mates. I know what they can do. At 1-0 down I was thinking ‘we can come back’. We did the job.”
Jurgen Klopp was smart to bring Mane off, regardless of where you stand on the two incidents, because a red card was looking likely.
Thankfully, we got the three points thanks to the boss switching to three at the back and Mo Salah showing ice-cool composure in the opposition box.
The Egyptian scored his 37th goal of the season late on to clinch the three points, after Sadio Mane’s 15th drew us level.
We’re now ten points ahead of Chelsea in fifth, and with a much better goal difference, realistically makes us heavy, heavy favourites for a top four finish.