UEFA Europa League: Liverpool 1-3 Sevilla - 5 Talking Points

#4 UEFA needs to get its refereeing act together

Any manager other than Jurgen Klopp would’ve made it a point to let it rip at the officials for having officiated in the most haphazard way possible. The final could have been marred by poor decision making in the first half, even if in the second half things did seem a whole lot better on the officiating front.

The officials got a lot right, including a disallowed Dejan Lovren goal and allowing the first goal from Coke but a barrage of handballs in the Sevilla box, had they been adjudicated as penalties, we would’ve seen a different winner on the night.

The three handballs may have been debatable whether they were deliberate or not (even if two of them seemed completely deliberate) but what cannot be denied is that they all impeded goal scoring opportunities. Swedish referee Jonas Eriksson may have been a little more careful about those decisions.

The truth remains that it is in such matters that UEFA needs a better set of guidelines for referees as to their line of action and the set of considerations in the split second before it. It isn’t an easy job, refereeing, not by a stretch but for better refereeing, we would’ve seen a different game.