Liverpool star Mo Salah ‘lucky’ to escape red card for horror tackle on Porto’s Danilo during first-leg victory at Anfield
Mohamed Salah was fortunate to escape a red card during Liverpool’s 2-0 victory over Porto in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final on Tuesday night.
The Liverpool star caught Danilo late and high on his shin with his studs in a horror tackle after overrunning the ball in the second half.
It is unclear if VAR looked back at the incident as a minute before Salah’s challenge Porto had appealed for a penalty when Felipe went down in the box under pressure from Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Mohamed Salah was lucky to escape a red card for a high challenge on Porto’s Danilo
Salah was out of control and caught Danilo with his studs after overrunning the ball
There was a brief pause in the game as VAR reviewed one of the incidents but no action was taken on either one as the referee gave the signal for play to resume.
Liverpool take a two-goal lead to Portugal next week thanks to first-half goals from Naby Keita and Roberto Firmino.
Jurgen Klopp will feel it is still too close for comfort and will be glad his star man avoided a red and so will be available for the second leg.
Former Premier League referee Phil Dowd was surprised Salah was not shown a straight red for his challenge.
He told BT Sport: ‘I’ve watched it again three or four times and it endangered the safety of the opponent and should be sanctioned with a red card.
‘The way Salah comes in, he comes over the player, it should have been a red card. For me I thought they would have asked them to review it, but obviously nothing came of it.’
Porto players appealed to the referee but no action was taken against the Liverpool man