Arne Slot admits ’emotions got better of me’ after seeing red amid derby drama

By PA Sport Staff

Liverpool boss Arne Slot admitted “emotions got the better of me” after his red card at the end of a dramatic final Merseyside derby at Goodison Park on Wednesday night.

Slot was sent off by referee Michael Oliver after the full-time whistle having seen Everton defender James Tarkowski score in the eighth minute of time added on to earn a 2-2 draw on a historic night.

The Dutchman is now waiting for the Football Association to review Oliver’s match report before he finds out what – if any – sanction he will face.

Depending on the contents of that report, Slot could face no further action, be reminded of his responsibilities, or be charged, which would likely result in a touchline ban.

Due to the ongoing process, he did not speak about details, but admitted he “made the wrong decision”.

“There is an ongoing process now and I have to respect that,” he said ahead of Saturday’s visit of Wolves.

“I think what happened was that the extra five minutes ended up being eight. It happened a lot.

“Emotions got the better of me. If I could do that differently, if I look back I would love to do that differently and I hope to do that differently next time.

“There is an ongoing process and I don’t want to disturb that.

“I should have acted differently after the game but it’s an emotional sport and sometimes individuals make wrong decisions and that’s definitely what I did.

“There were many things in extra time that led to me being quite emotional. There was a foul incident and then two minutes they checked, I thought the only thing would be a foul or maybe offside.

 

“Of course then after 10 minutes you hear their fans cheering, OK, it wasn’t offside. Many things happened in the end phase in extra time but it wouldn’t be smart to go into every single incident.”

Tarkowski’s goal sparked wild scenes, with Everton’s Abdoulaye Doucoure and Liverpool’s Curtis Jones both seeing red after clashing at the full-time whistle.

Jones reacted to Doucoure celebrating in front of Liverpool’s fans.

“I like a lot that he stands up for the team, but there are also other ways for the team and fans to do that,” Slot added.

“I will talk with him about that. It is the same for me, I should have acted differently after the game as well.”

The Reds were on course to earn victory on the historic occasion and strengthen their grip on the Premier League title race until the late drama.

Slot added: “I felt immediately after the referee blew his whistle we had lost two points.

“For the whole 98 minutes it didn’t feel constantly we were the ones who were going to win the game, it was an equal game, a draw was maybe a fair result but with us leading after 97 minutes we were quite close to winning the game and it felt as though we dropped two points.

“But we won a lot as well with the togetherness of the team, together with the fans, how much we fought to get the result over the line.”