Virgil van Dijk was blamed by Crystal Palace coach Roy Hodgson for his role in Jordan Ayew's sending off during Saturday's match at Selhurst Park.
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Ayew booked for blocking Van Dijk free-kickPalace forward was sent off with second yellowLiverpool equalised straight away and won 2-1WHAT HAPPENED?
Ayew was shown two yellow cards and sent off while his team were leading 1-0 in the Premier League match. His first was for blocking a free kick as Van Dijk ended up hitting it off of him and then he was given a second booking for a foul.
AdvertisementGettyWHAT HODGSON SAID
Hodgson feels the attacker was hard done by on both counts, saying on : "Van Dijk took the opportunity to get him booked by kicking the ball at him from a few yards away. That's very disappointing. I think if you're Liverpool do not need players of that quality and status in the game to try to get an opposition player a yellow card by just kicking the ball against him.
"The second one, I thought was a good challenge. Even if it's deemed a foul, which it could be, it wasn't a yellow card. In fact, there was only one yellow card offence from our side that I would agree with and that was the one where Naouirou Ahamada at the end of the game gets frustrated and kicks a player from behind, that's a yellow card."
THE BIGGER PICTURE
Ayew's sending off immediately affected Crystal Palace as Liverpool scored the equalising goal just a minute later as Mohamed Salah fired in his 200th goal for the Reds and 150th in the Premier League. Then in stoppage time Harvey Elliott struck the winning goal for the away side.
GettyWHAT NEXT FOR LIVERPOOL?
The Reds are on a four-game winning run and are six in a row without defeat. They will hope to maintain that form when they face Royale Union Saint-Gilloise in Belgium in their final Europa League group stage game on Thursday.