Arsene Wenger has suggested the Liverpool midfielder Fabinho may have “cheated” to get Inter Milan’s Alexis Sanchez sent off in their Champions League encounter.
Sanchez was shown red for a second bookable offence after following through on Fabinho. Inter clung on to win the game 1-0, but it was not enough to prevent exiting the competition on aggregate.
Wenger, speaking as a pundit on BeIN Sports, said the red card “killed the game” and suggested Liverpool’s Brazilian midfielder played his part in Sanchez’s sending off.
“Borderline between cheating and being clever,” Wenger surmised. “He was cheating, he made more of it. Maybe he had pain, he was touched by Sanchez. You cannot say it was completely fake.
“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 didn’t want to hurt him, he played first the ball.”
Liverpool defender Virgil Van Dijk said their misfiring performance against 10-man Inter proved they are human.
Joel Matip hit the crossbar, Mohamed Salah hit the post twice in the second half while substitute Luis Diaz had a certain goal denied right at the end after Arturo Vidal somehow deflected his close-range shot over.
However, a fourth quarter-final in five seasons was secured by a 2-1 aggregate scoreline thanks to their two-goal victory in San Siro three weeks ago.
“We are all human beings. Sometimes you miss chances - luckily we don’t lose many games but it happened,” Van Dijk told beIN Sports. “The most important thing is that we are through and that was the main target. All good in the end.
“I am disappointed that we lost but I have to turn it into happiness because we are through. But I don’t like losing, we need to be ready for the weekend.”
