Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher has claimed that referee Craig Pawson was right to award Everton a penalty in the Merseyside derby at Anfield this afternoon.
Dejan Lovren bundled Dominic Calvert-Lewin to ground inside the area to concede the spot kick 13 minutes from time, and Wayne Rooney dispatched the subsequent penalty as Everton produced a smash-and-grab performance to come away with a point.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was left furious with the decision and made his feelings clear in a tense post-match interview, but Carragher believes that it was the correct call.
"[Klopp is a] very frustrated manager, and rightly so. It was a game Liverpool should have won quite comfortably. I think his frustration comes from the fact that Everton weren't that adventurous and came to defend. But whether you defend for 95 minutes, it doesn't matter - they've got the result they wanted, and it all hinges on the penalty," he told Sky Sports News.
"It's a penalty. What is Lovren doing? People say it's soft, but that doesn't mean it's not a penalty. As soon as he's felt his hands on his shoulders, he [Calvert-Lewin] has gone down. Why is [Lovren] running at that pace when Calvert-Lewin is running to the corner flag? It's a foul, it's a penalty, I have no doubt about that.
"It's a very stupid thing to do. It's the one real attack Everton had, and that's what is frustrating. Liverpool's defenders weren't asked to do much today, and the one time they were asked, they made a stupid mistake, so they've only got themselves to blame."
The penalty was only the second Everton have been awarded in a Merseyside derby at Anfield since 1937.
