It's fair to say Sunday's Merseyside Derby was a fiery one, and Liverpool will be breathing a sigh of relief of sorts.
The title challengers desperately needed all three points at Anfield to close the gap on Manchester City and they came up with the goods.
Everton badly needed a point, at the very least, given their battle with relegation and recent plummet into the Premier League relegation zone.
With two teams miles apart in terms of quality and points differential, it surprisingly provided for an edgy and tight encounter for the first 60 minutes or so.
Liverpool broke the deadlock in the 62nd minute through an Andy Robertson header, and Merseyside Derby kingpin Divock Origi added a second later on.
Gordon Penalty Incident
Anthony Gordon has been a shining light for Everton this season and there was little surprise he'd be in flying form for a game against his local rivals.
His battle with Trent Alexander-Arnold down the left-wing will hopefully be a staple of many Merseyside Derby's to come, with two Liverpool lads in competition with each other.
However, Gordon caused plenty of controversies, particularly for his willingness to go down lightly in the first half. That resulted in a yellow card for diving.
But an incident came at the start of the second half where the winger appeared to have been pushed over by Joel Matip inside the Liverpool penalty area.
🤦🏼♂️🤦🏼♂️ pic.twitter.com/iDvHpMDlrb
— AG (@anthonygordon) April 24, 2022
The game was 0-0 at that stage and could have made Liverpool's task much harder if a penalty was given. VAR and referee Stuart Atwell thought otherwise.
In the aftermath of the game, Graeme Souness and Jamie Carragher highlighted that Gordon's yellow card could have swayed their judgement.
"He could have got that if he didn't dive in the first half," Souness said on Sky Sports. "It definitely will be in referee's heads," Carragher added.
'Stonewall Penalty' Against Liverpool, Says McCoist
Speaking on talkSPORT, pundit Ally McCoist was particularly vocal about the Anthony Gordon penalty and believed Liverpool were lucky to get away with a 'stonewall penalty'.
👀 “No doubt it’s a penalty! I can’t believe that we’re having this conversation.”
😡 “The referee is wrong! What are they doing in VAR? It’s an embarrassment.”
🔵 “Stonewall penalty!”
Ally McCoist can’t believe #EFC didn’t get a penalty for Anthony Gordan vs #LFC. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/aXBv0aUm4K— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) April 25, 2022
McCoist was asked if Stuart Atwell should have given the penalty or at least went to VAR:
Absolutely no doubt. I can't believe we're having this conversation. It's a penalty. It's 100% a penalty and they should have been given the penalty.
And I heard the voices after the game, maybe he was influenced by Gordon diving in the first half, which he did do. I also think there was contact there by the way..
But the fact of the matter is. Two things. The referee is completely wrong. There might be an element of understanding of him being influenced by a dive in the first half.
However, he's wrong, because his job is to take all incidents on their own individual merit. So that is a penalty. And what they're doing in VAR, that's an embarrassment..
Just after the first half, Liverpool were in total domination of the game. However, at that point it didn't look as though they were really making any inroads at all.
I thought the penalty decision was shocking. Stonewall penalty.
It'll be a contentious issue for a while but Everton may feel a bit hard done by, given the penalty incident that wasn't given against Manchester City several weeks ago for a clear Rodri handball.
As of Monday morning they have written to the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) as to why the apparent foul wasn't looked into by VAR.
Liverpool will now turn their attention to a Champions League semi-final this week and continue the close the gap on City in the Premier League table.
See Also: Souness & Carragher Feel Anthony Gordon's Diving Cost Everton A Clear Penalty At Anfield
