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Nottingham Forest star at centre of Liverpool controversy speaks out on 'strange' incident
Nottingham Forest captain Ryan Yates has spoken out on the controversy around Liverpool's late winning goal against his side on Saturday.
Jurgen Klopp saw nothing wrong with Liverpool’s winning goal at Forest
Nottingham Forest captain Ryan Yates remains baffled at how Liverpool were given possession by referee Paul Tierney before scoring a last-gasp Darwin Nunez goal at the City Ground on Saturday. Tierney incorrectly applied the rules of the game which helped the Reds to get the ball and get it forward, eventually leading to a 99th-minute winner from Nunez to steal all three points.
Ibrahima Konate went down inside the Liverpool box in the 96th minute after a Forest corner with an apparent head injury. It came after contact with his goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher, despite one camera angle suggesting he might have taken studs to the face from Yates.
The match official should have given possession back to Forest with Callum Hudson-Odoi having been in control of the ball towards the corner flag. But Kelleher was instead allowed to start a Liverpool attack with an uncontested restart.
That break forward led to a corner and after Forest failed to clear their lines, a deft Nunez flick guided Alexis Mac Allister's lofted pass beyond Matz Sels for victory. There were howls of anger from the Forest fans while the players made their discontent clear at the final whistle.
Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis is believed to have tried to confront Tierney down the tunnel post-match. The Nottingham club's newly-employed referees' analyst Mark Clattenburg has confirmed their intention to take the matter to the PGMOL.
And Yates said: "The referee told me: 'That's the rule, they get the ball.' I honestly don't know how that is possible. We were in the ascendancy. We had a corner. There was just a coming together and we were going to put another ball into the box.
"Then, suddenly, while we're switched off, they're allowed to get the ball to the other end of the pitch and put us under pressure. It's strange, very strange. We've to to use it to drive us on. I think we have to. We've got no choice. We need to start picking up points."
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said of the incident: "It happened exactly the same in the first half, didn't it? It was exactly the same, just the other way around, right? If it wouldn't have happened in the first half, I would have asked a question as well. But I would now assume that's the rule.
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"I don't know to be 100 per cent sure because it happened twice and twice it got handled exactly the same. So, I don't really see the reason for the discussions because that's it and I don't know how many passes we had to play to arrive there and score the goal.
"But I understand 100 per cent the excitement and the anger and stuff like this of Nottingham, of course. They fight for everything and I understand that, but I think with the particular situation where it was twice the same then I would say that's consistent."
IFAB laws however state that Tierney was right to give Forest the ball in the first half after Yates had gone down holding his head. That was after Harvey Elliott's shot struck him. Forest were correctly given possession because the ball was in the box when the whistle was blown.