Europa: Toulouse earn surprise victory over Liverpool
A controversial video assistant referee decision denied Liverpool a stoppage-time equaliser as they suffered a surprise Europa League loss to Toulouse.
Jarell Quansah’s goal to make it 3-3 in the seventh minute of added time was ruled out after Alexis Mac Allister was judged to have handled the ball.
Quansah slammed in from close range to spark wild Liverpool celebrations and furious protestations from Toulouse before Bulgarian referee Georgi Kabakov was called to the VAR screen – having already appeared to point to the centre circle.
The ball had bounced off Mac Allister’s chest into his upper arm much earlier in the move, which was ruled enough to disallow the goal.
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Toulouse impressed for much of the match and went 2-0 up though strikes from Aron Donnum and Thijs Dallinga.
Liverpool pulled one back through a bizarre own goal from Cristian Casseres Jr, but Frank Magri restored the French side’s two-goal advantage.
Substitute Diogo Jota then scored for Liverpool with two minutes of normal time left and they thought they had earned a point with virtually the final kick of the match, before VAR’s intervention.
This match becomes the latest to feature VAR-related controversy in a turbulent week, although while Liverpool were denied a point, they had been well below their best.
Toulouse are 14th in Ligue 1 just one point above the relegation play-off places and had lost 5-1 at Anfield in the reverse fixture earlier in this group.
But after withstanding heavy pressure they took the lead on 36 minutes through a mistake by Kostas Tsimikas. The Greek left-back was robbed by Donnum, who strode forward into the area and found the back of the net with a shot that deflected off Quansah.
Toulouse top scorer Dallinga bagged the second just before the hour, slamming into the bottom corner following a fine team move.
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The hosts were rocked when a defensive mix-up saw a high cross bounce off Casseres’ back and into his own goal, after he turned his back on the ball expecting a team-mate to head it away.
But they hit back immediately, Magri slamming in from close range after Caoimhin Kelleher palmed out a low cross.
Jota’s powerful low strike set up a grandstand finish, but Toulouse held on for a famous win – with help from the officials.
Having won their three previous Europa League games, Liverpool are still well placed to qualify from Group E and need just one more victory from their final two pool matches to at least reach February’s play-off round.