Monday, March 21, 2011

Jamie Carragher Admits Liverpool Were Fortunate To Be Awarded Penalty In 2-0 Win Over Sunderland

Jamie Carragher has admitted that Liverpool were fortunate to be awarded a penalty at the Stadium of Light as Kenny Dalglish's beat Sunderland 2-0.

Referee Kevin Friend controversially reversed his decision of a free-kick to a penalty after talking with his linesman when Black Cats defender John Mensah fouled Jay Spearing. Dirk Kuyt scored the contentious spot-kick in the 34th minute changing the game after the Reds had begun the game slowly.

Carragher told Sky Sports: “I thought it was a penalty but then I found out at half-time, I don’t think it was, was it? It was just outside. That’s gone for us there, so we have to take that today, as they say it evens itself out. I’m sure Sunderland will be disappointed with that but it went our way there.

“Everyone knows that goals change games, I mean up to that point it was pretty even Sunderland were creating and were putting a little bit of pressure on.

“It was a pretty even game, every week we can look at different incidents and we can always say it changes the game, maybe I think that one has gone our way but thankfully we got the other one to make sure so you could say we still would have won 1-0.”

The veteran defender also praised the scorer of Liverpool’s second, Luis Suarez, who has settled into Kenny Dalglish’s side well after joining in January from Ajax for £23 million. He also admitted the Uruguayan’s presence was missed in their Europa League clash with Braga last Thursday.

Carragher added: “He’s a top player and he’s given everybody a lift. It was obviously disappointing to lose a player like Fernando but he’s gone to Chelsea now so we have to look at the players who’ve come in.

“I thought Andy Carroll was very unlucky not to score, I’d probably have preferred him to score as he needed to get off the mark, he (Suarez) had already scored. He’s a top player and I think we missed him in midweek in Europe, I think that showed but he’s a made a difference today."

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