Inter Milan stars rage at Liverpool penalty as Capello slams decision

Dominik Szoboszlai's 88th-minute penalty gave Liverpool a 1-0 Champions League win over Inter Milan at San Siro, but the controversial VAR decision left players and Fabio Capello fuming

The Inter Milan changing room was seething following Liverpool's 1-0 triumph at the San Siro on Tuesday evening, with three of their players condemning the decision to grant the Reds a late spot-kick. Dominik Szoboszlai netted the decisive goal in the 88th minute after Alessandro Bastoni was deemed to have hauled back Florian Wirtz following a VAR review.

Whilst the 26-year-old did tug at the German's jersey, the choice to award the penalty did seem soft.

Liverpool were not complaining after being handed the opportunity to secure a crucial three points against last season's Champions League runners-up - with the victory leaving them in the top eight in this year's league phase table.

However, whilst the Reds celebrated a hard-earned triumph, coming after a stormy few days following Mohamed Salah's bombshell remarks about Arne Slot and the club, members of the Inter Milan changing room voiced their frustrations at how the defeat unfolded.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan was convinced that the Serie A side didn't merit losing the match as he fumed over the penalty decision, reports the Liverpool Echo.

"I think it was a balanced game and no-one deserved to win tonight," he said. "The best result was a draw.

"I don't know how they came up with a penalty that never existed but this is football. We are not happy. If you give a penalty like this, then every contact in the box is a penalty.

"It hurts to lose a match like this, when you fight for 85 minutes and a penalty like that is awarded, but we have to move on. It's hard to accept, but we need to keep our heads up, work harder, and try to change things in the next two matches.

"Tonight wasn't our best performance, but we shouldn't forget that we were up against a top-level opponent. It was a balanced game and, in my opinion, a draw would have been fair, but the referee decided to award a penalty for what felt like a dive."

Manchester City loanee Manuel Akanji didn't mince his words either, labelling the decision as 'one of the softest penalties I've ever seen'.

"It's tough because in the end we've come away with zero points because I think we were the better team," he shared with CBS. "We had the better chances and in the end, to concede a penalty like this is tough, it's tough to lose a game like this.

"The penalty situation, I mean he pulls his shirt, but it's a soft pull and obviously if you watch everything in slow motion, everything looks far worse than it actually is. The player runs away from the goal and he pulls his shirt a bit and it's one of the softest penalties I've ever seen.

"But in the end we have to be honest, we can't get in the position to give the referee an opportunity to even whistle for a penalty there. For me it's never a pen."

Piotr Zielinski also expressed his frustration with the ruling, stating: "We're disappointed and angry, because we felt we played well, but perhaps we were just missing that little something in the final third.

"As for the refereeing decisions, I don't know – on the pitch it never looked like a foul. If those are given, then from now on every challenge in the box will be a penalty."

However, it wasn't solely the Inter Milan changing room that was left fuming over the spot-kick decision.

Ex-England boss Fabio Capello may be a longstanding adversary of Inter Milan, having represented and managed AS Roma, Juventus and AC Milan throughout his distinguished career. Yet that didn't prevent the 79-year-old from condemning the contentious ruling.

"It's a scandalous penalty. I don't understand why VAR had to intervene when the referee had seen everything," he declared on Sky Italia. "The obvious simulation of throwing himself to the ground.

"I don't understand tonight's VAR: it took them three minutes to disallow a very clear handball goal.

"They called the referee for pulling his shirt... that way we'd have a million penalties a game. It's a precedent and it's shameful."