Pascal Gross avoided a red card against Liverpool because VAR officials did not consider the scenario to be a “clear goalscoring opportunity.”

At Brighton, Liverpool were given a penalty when the German midfielder brought down Dominik Szoboszlai within the penalty area while making no serious attempt to touch the ball. Mohamed Salah scored to put Liverpool up 2-1.

Players who demonstrate an attempt to retake possession are exempt from being dismissed by the referee. Gross was not only spared a red card in this incident, but he was also spared a yellow card.

“Where a player commits an offence against an opponent within their own penalty area that denies an opponent an obvious goal-scoring opportunity and the referee awards a penalty kick, the offender is cautioned if the offence was an attempt to play the ball or a challenge for the ball; in all other circumstances (e.g. holding, pulling, pushing, no possibility to play the ball, etc.), the offending player must be bailed.”

Despite Salah’s goal, Liverpool fans were left fuming after Gross was spared further punishment, and the ECHO understands that this was because it was felt that Szoboszlai was not moving toward goal and would need to gain possession in order for the opportunity to become a goal scoring opportunity.

Should Gross not have fouled him, Szoboszlai appeared to have only Brighton goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen to beat.

This comes on the heels of a VAR dispute last week in which Luis Diaz’s goal was ruled out for offside despite VAR officials saying it was a goal. Liverpool had two players sent off in their loss against Tottenham.