Schlupp “disappointed” by VAR as Palace test Liverpool but come up short

by Andrew McSteen

Crystal Palace midfielder Jeffrey Schlupp was one of the many thousands inside Selhurst Park on Saturday watching the big screen display ‘Decision: No Goal’ after VAR overturned a James Tomkins header in the 42nd minute which would have put the Eagles 1-0 ahead against the runaway league leaders Liverpool.

Schlupp was on the bench ahead of being introduced as a 72nd minute substitute for Cheikhou Kouyate, and left no doubt as to what he thought of the decision by video analysis.

“Everyone has watched it back,” said Schlupp about whether he had seen the incident again after the match, “but that’s for everyone else to say,” he added about if he thought the VAR decision was correct to cancel the goal after Jordan Ayew appeared to push Liverpool defender Dejan Lovren just before the Palace defender sunk home from a Luka Milivojevic free kick.

“At the end of the day, if you look at every corner, I think you’ll see something like that going on, so you will probably see every single goal that someone scores from a corner ruled out – we’re disappointed, but these things happen, and we’ll have to go again.”

Schlupp and his team put in what manager Roy Hodgson said was their best performance so far this season and despite going 1-0 down through a Sadio Mane strike in the 49th minute, the home side came back to equalise when Wilfried Zaha opened his account for the season eight minutes from time, only for Roberto Firmino to score the winner with five minutes remaining.

“We had a good week of training with everyone that was there,” said Ghana international Schlupp about the return to league action after the international break. “When everyone came back from their international teams they came back in good shape and came straight into a couple of good sessions.

“We took this into the (Liverpool) game and especially in the first half we did really well – and in the second half also – but you’re playing against a top team.

“I thought we played really well, gave them a good test and didn’t go wrong too many times,” he continued. “They scored two, maybe scrappy, goals and I think we could have done better with both of them, but if you give Liverpool chances like that, they’re going to take them – that’s why they’re top of the league.”

Photo by Keith Gillard