Atletico Madrid defender Felipe was shown a controversial red card by Danny Makkelie after he appeared to ignore the referee’s whistle on three separate occasions.
Diogo Jota fired Liverpool into the lead in the 13th minute at Anfield after a sublime assist from Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Trent set up Sadio Mane for Liverpool’s second in the 21st minute, while Felipe was handed his marching orders in the 36th minute.
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Mane was kicked in the heel by Felipe and Makkelie immediately blew his whistle, with the referee summoning the Atletico centre-back to him.
However, it appeared that Felipe was playing hardball and refused to approach Makkelie, with the referee blowing his whistle three times.
A visibly frustrated Makkelie made his way towards the 32-year-old Brazilian and brandished a red card, with Atletico’s players protesting the decision.
One Twitter user wrote: “Felipe was naive to ignore [the] referee calling him.”
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While another tweeted: “Felipe is never going to ignore a ref again.”
And a third added: “Not sure Felipe deserved a straight red, but his challenge was a yellow and his dissent was a yellow. Deserved to be sent off.”
Someone else said: “Felipe deserved that red.”
A fifth posted: “The ref called him three times and Felipe decided he was bigger than the ref, so got sent off for not listening to him.”
Joel Matip played Jota through minutes into the second half and the Liverpool forward had the ball in the back of the net, only for VAR to rule he was in an offside position.
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Former Liverpool striker Luis Suarez thought he had pulled one back for Atletico in the second half, but he was ruled offside as Diego Simeone’s men fell to a 2-0 defeat.
Liverpool have booked their place in the Champions League round-of-16 stage, with Jurgen Klopp’s men sitting comfortably at the top of Group B.
The Reds will return to Premier League action on Sunday against West Ham at the London Stadium.
Featured Image Credit: Twitter/BT SportTopics: Atletico Madrid, Liverpool, Champions League, Football
