Ahead of the Merseysie derby, Everton boss David Moyes claimed that he is afraid of the Uruguayan International Luis Suarez for his theatrics to fool the referees and went on to claim that fans will start to start desert the game if players continue trying to earn cheap free-kicks and penalties. The famous sending off of Jack Rodwell last season for a tackle on Suarez has been in the mind of Moyes and is still outrageous about the incident.
However it was Luis Suarez who caused problems early on for Everton as his play ensured Leighton Baines to score an own goal as early as the 14th minute then added another goal himself in the 20th. And this time the Uruguayan dived intentionally in front of the Moyes showing his reply to the Everton boss. Apparently David Moyes found the humor in it too.
“I thought it was great,” Moyes said after the match. “I actually quite liked that and it’s the sort of thing I’d have done if I’d have scored.”
The match did not end there and controversies continued till the final whistle. Suarez was in the middle of everything as the Uruguayan was guilty of fouling Sylvain Distin, for which he should have been sent off and in the dying moments of the game the linesman gave a wrong decision, disallowing his goal.
Talking to the press after the game, Brendan Rodgers claimed
“I didn’t think it was a red card,” he said. Sometimes you get that with strikers, sometimes it is just a fraction and he is trying to time the ball as he’s playing it. We’re so disappointed that it didn’t count because for me it’s an easy decision,” said Rodgers, who has regularly complained about his side not getting decisions from referees. I’m not going to keep going on about officials because it’s been happening to us all season.
“The ball’s in the air for a long time, the official’s just looking across the line so he’s clearly onside and when Coates heads it Luis is minimum level and it’s a wonderful finish. He should have had a hat-trick and it would have been a brilliant win for us.”
And Everton boss David Moyes himself admitted that the linesman got it wrong for the Suarez goal and however claimed that the player should have been sent off much earlier for his tackle on Sylvain Distin
And so ended yet another controversial Merseyside derby.