REDS KISS GOODBYE TO DREAMS OF GLORY ON A CRAZY, CRAZY NIGHT

JURGEN KLOPP’S first trophy in England won’t be the 2018 FA Cup. Liverpool’s exit to West Brom was every bit as chaotic and confusing as the use of the video assistant referee saw the first half alone over-run by seven minutes.

In possibly the wackiest game Anfield has ever witnessed, Liverpool took the lead, were 3-1 behind at half-time and failed to gain a replay after Mo Salah netted his 25th goal of the season late on.

To add to the drama, referee Craig Pawson used VAR Andre Marriner eight times.

First, he disallowed a goal by Albion’s Craig Dawson after guidance in his earpiece. Then, midway through the first half, it took three minutes 54 seconds between Salah being fouled by Jake Livermore and Roberto Firmino taking the resulting penalty as Mr Pawson heard from Mr Marriner and then went to the touchline to check the monitor.

To add to the farce, Firmino then crashed the resulting spot-kick against the underside of the crossbar. It was that sort of occasion.

Advocates of VAR will say justice was served because two major decisions were judged correctly because of technology.

But the flow of the game was constantly interrupted and the fans had no access to replays — meaning they spent a lot of time sitting and waiting.

‘Are we going to start taking goals away from the entertainment for those slight margins? That is a worry,’ said West Brom boss Alan Pardew.

Though it was a terrific game, a proper cup-tie, it hat was despite rather than because of VAR. To add to the confusion, only four minutes of overtime was played at the end of the first half even though the delays had been a lot longer that.

Even without the distraction of VAR, Liverpool will know their cup exit was selfinflicted and manager Klopp didn’t try to pretend otherwise.

‘It was poor defending. Just bad goals,’ he summarised.