Premier League explains late penalty awarded to Liverpool against Newcastle

The Premier League Match Centre has provided clarification following Liverpool's late penalty in their thrilling draw with Newcastle. Lewis Hall was deemed at fault for bringing down Reds substitute Victor Munoz as he surged into the box. This led referee Stuart Attwell to award the penalty, with Dominik Szoboszlai converting from 12 yards to equalise in the 99th minute.

Shortly after the penalty was scored, the Premier League Match Centre released a statement on X (formerly Twitter) to clarify the decision. They stated: "The referee’s call of penalty for the challenge by Hall on Muñoz was checked and confirmed by VAR. REF: 'He doesn’t play the ball. He makes clear contact'. VAR: 'It’s knee into thigh contact. Confirming the on-field decision of penalty'."

Initially, it appeared to be an obvious penalty, and subsequent replays supported this view, but Newcastle manager Matthias Jaissle described the decision as "soft" during his post-match comments.

"The heads are a little bit down, but they're also realistic, they know that we had many mini challenges already," said the newly-appointed Magpies head coach.

"There's a huge transition phase at the moment, but we tried already encouraged them that this is another part where we got some challenges to overcome. Someone was throwing some stones on the way. I need to be careful, not to get fined.

"It was soft [the penalty]. It was a really soft one, if you give that, then there will be so many penalties in the future. I'm not a fan of that."

Sky Sports pundit Micah Richards, however, was firm in his belief that it was a penalty, stating: "Look, a pen is a pen. Lewis Hall is very unlucky and he does catch Victor Munoz.

"He tries to anticipate where he's going to go but he's too late. He catches his knee and it's a penalty, it's knee on knee."

Hall expressed his frustration at the decision after the final whistle, but Gary Neville suggested the defender's protests stemmed more from frustration than a genuine belief that he had been wronged.

"On reflection, Lewis Hall will know deep inside that he knows it's a penalty," Neville remarked. "But if you said today travelling up to Newcastle that they'd be getting a point against Liverpool, it was memorable for both sets of fans."

It was undoubtedly a tough outcome for the Magpies, who performed well and likely deserved to secure all three points.

Source: Express.co.uk