Sevilla and their manager Julen Lopetegui should be grovelling to Liverpool and Yasser Larouci following last night’s farcical ‘friendly’.
In the first-half, Ever Banega and Diego Carlos should have both been sent off, but were given the benefit of the doubt by a referee not wanting to dismiss somebody in a competitive fixture.
Argentine midfielder Banega was especially fortunate after aiming an elbow at Harry Wilson while already on a yellow card.
In the second-half though, it got nasty. Joris Gnannon was sent off for a despicable challenge on Larouci – with the teenager leaving the field on a stretcher.
But Lopetegui claimed following the game that it was only possibly a red-card offence.
“[Gnagnon] was very, very worried and knows it could have been a bad injury,” Lopetegui told Goal.
“I am worried about the player [Larouci] but I asked Jurgen [Klopp] and he said the player is okay, it isn’t a bad injury and I am happy for that.
“That’s the most important thing. The referee thought it was a red card and I haven’t seen a replay but it’s possible it was a red card.”
We have to hope the Spaniard simply hasn’t seen the challenge properly – as there’s no way he’d be making these comments otherwise.
Sevilla posted a message on Twitter wishing Larouci a speedy recovery, but notably, it didn’t include an apology.
We just hope we never have to face the La Liga giants in a so-called friendly again. Stupid, dangerous game.