Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) slammed again after Lucas Bergvall was unpunished and allowed to score the winning goal following malicious tackle on Kostas Tsimikas..

The Athletic reported on Thursday that the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) was once again slammed for not punishing Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Lucas Bergvall wonderkid after he maliciously tackled Liverpool's Greece international left-wing back Kostas Tsimikas, and was allowed to score the winning goal in the first leg of the 2024/25 Carabao Cup semi-finals match.

According to the report, many industry journalists, pundits and fans were disappointed that PGMOL had once again pitted against Liverpool, and once again aroused people's suspicion that the authorities were deliberately targeting the Reds.

Many people believe that even if Bergvall's malicious tackle on Tsimikas was not noticed at the first time, the fourth official and the VAR assistant referee could have checked the VAR video replay immediately after the former scored to rule that Bergvall had committed a malicious foul first, hence the goal should be ruled out, but instead the referee deliberately turned a blind eye to this foul, which is really unconvincing in terms of emotion and reason.

After the game, Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk undoubtedly became the first person to slam the PGMOL, while head coach Arne Slot declined to comment because he did not want to be targeted.

It is worth mentioning that the referee of this game, Stuart Attwell, had been criticized by many Liverpool fans for turning a blind eye to Jeremy Doku's malicious kick to Alexis Mac Allister when he served as a VAR assistant referee in the Premier League match between Manchester City and Liverpool last season.

Secondly, since Liverpool is one of the clubs leading other Premier League clubs to demand a thorough change of the VAR video replay system, and the referee David Coote was previously fired for racially discriminating against its former legendary head coach Jurgen Klopp and taking heroin, this undoubtedly deepened people's suspicion that PGMOL deliberately targeted the Reds in order to vent their anger.

Fortunately, although Liverpool lost the game again in an unfair way in this match, bad news of Kostas Tsimikas being injured after the game was not released.

Lucas Bergvall, who is only 18 years old, joined Tottenham Hotspur from Djurgården during the winter transfer window of 2024.

Since becoming a member of Tottenham Hotspur, Bergvall has played 22 times for the Premier League giants in all competitions so far, scoring 1 goal and providing 2 assists.