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The UCL Round of 16 tie between Liverpool and Inter Milan turned out to be quite interesting, something that caught everyone by surprise. After the Reds had taken 2-0 lead in first leg, there was a sense of feeling that the tie was done and dusted. However, Inter came out all guns blazing in second leg and after Lautaro Martinez scored a brilliant goal in 61st minute, the doors were open for a thrilling finale.
Unfortunately, the excitement remained for a couple of minutes only as Alexis Sanchez received second booking of the evening in 63rd minute, under controversial circumstances. Inter were down to 10-men and they were not the same team anymore. The last half hour of the game proved to be quite boring for everyone as Liverpool sealed their spot in quarter-finals.
Controversy in Liverpool vs Inter Milan UCL tie
However, many experts expressed their disappointment on the decision by referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz to send Sanchez off. Actually, the Inter Milan forward had won the ball cleanly and it was his follow through that caught Fabinho.
Wenger accuses Fabinho of 'cheating'
But former Arsenal manager, under whom Sanchez played, opined that Fabinho had cheated in order to get a decision in favour of him. The 72-year-old added that there is a borderline between cheating and being clever and Liverpool midfielder did the former.
"He (Fabinho) was cheating, he made more of it... Maybe he had pain, he was touched by Sanchez. You cannot say it was completely fake," Wenger said in conversation with beIN SPORTS after the match.
"Maybe he could have got up quicker. It's one of those fouls, when it's one of your plays you say it's clever, when you're completely neutral like we're supposed to be you can say he could have made less of it. He (Sanzhez) didn't want to hurt him, he played first the ball," he further added.
Although Wenger admitted that Liverpool deserved to qualify over the two games, he felt that referee killed a little bit of the interest of game in last 20 minutes. Former Man Utd defender Rio Ferdinand also agreed with Wenger and opined that Antonio Mateu Lahoz could have taken a different approach.
