Sevilla Manager Eduardo Berizzo Explains Sending Off

One of the stranger events in an admittedly eventful and strange tie was the sending off of Sevilla’s manager Eduardo Berizzo. Berizzo was warned in the first half after throwing the ball away from Joe Gomez. When he repeated the action in the second half, the referee had little choice but to send Berizzo to the stands.

In the post match press conference, Berizzo tried to defend himself.

“It was two different actions and situations,” Berizzo explained. “When we were winning and Liverpool were on the counter I did something that wasn't right, I threw ball to stop the advantage of a counter attack. I realised that was a mistake.

“However in the second half, when we were losing and chasing the game, I still decided to throw the ball away to make up for (my actions in) the first half, so I tried to do the same.

“[Jurgen] Klopp understood but the referee didn't understand, he was the only one.

“I had a chat with Klopp and wanted to put right the initial mistake. [The referee] did act to the letter of the law, but I wanted to try to explain, what I did explain to the Liverpool staff is that it wasn't a bad intention, I was just trying to make up for what happened before.”

So, you throw the ball away with the intention of wasting time in order to make up for throwing the ball away to waste time. Right.

This defense is as laughable as a Dejan Lovern attempted clearance.

Whether leading or trailing, the Sevilla manager was still trying to give his defenders a couple of more seconds to get back in position to better deal with Liverpool’s quick counters. Berizzo knew exactly what he was doing in both instances, and he couldn’t have been shocked when the ref removed him from the touchline.