Everton were left furious after after their appeals for a penalty Merseyside derby against Liverpool on Sunday afternoon were turned down. The Blues were hosting the Reds for the first-ever derby at the Hill Dickinson Stadium following the move from Goodison Park for this season.
The home side appealed for a spot-kick after Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall went to ground in the penalty area following a shoulder-to-shoulder with Curtis Jones.
Chris Kavanagh was the referee for the game and waved away the initial appeals from the Everton players, with Blues manager David Moyes also appealing for a spot-kick to be awarded.
VAR went on to check the decision from Kavanagh, with the on-field call of no penalty being confirmed by the video assistant referee.
Former Premier League striker Chris Sutton was on commentary duty for Sky Sports and gave his verdict on the penalty appeals from Everton.
“His [Dewsbury-Hall] run is well-timed,” Sutton said. “The ball is excellent. Chris Kavanagh said it was shoulder to shoulder and that was my initial reaction too.
“Was he getting on the end of that anyway? Too easy, though, to run off the back of [Dominik] Szoboszlai to get in.”
Moments later, Everton thought they had taken the lead in the Merseyside derby after Iliman Ndiaye latched onto a cross from Jake O'Brien to place the ball past Liverpool goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili.
However, an offside in the build-up saw VAR intervene and disallow the effort from Ndiaye.
Less than two minutes later, Liverpool took the lead with a first-time effort from Mohamed Salah to give the Reds the lead in the derby around the half-hour mark.
Liverpool and Everton both went into the game looking to secure all three points to help their respective efforts to qualify for Europe.
Everton went into kick-off in 10th place in the Premier League table and could have moved to just two points behind sixth-placed Liverpool with a victory at Hill Dickinson Stadium.
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