New angle of Cody Gakpo penalty incident during Bournemouth vs Liverpool emerges and changes everything

A new angle of the foul that led to Liverpool being awarded a penalty against Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium on Saturday has emerged – and it has changed fans’ opinions.

During the 27th minute of a frantic first half on the south coast, Liverpool’s Cody Gakpo and Bournemouth’s Lewis Cook galloped after a bouncing ball before the Dutchman went over inside the penalty area - causing referee Darren England to point to the spot.

Mohamed Salah took the ensuing penalty and made no mistake from 12 yards to register his first goal of the game before adding a second with 15 minutes left.

Many fans originally thought Gakpo, 25, had clipped his standing leg rather than received contact from Cook, 27.

However, the Premier League released an explanation to their Match Centre X account shortly after the incident.

The post read: “The referee’s call of penalty was checked and confirmed by VAR – with the challenge deemed to have been a trip by Cook on Gakpo. The VAR also confirmed Gakpo was onside in the build-up.”

But, a new angle has now emerged which appears to show that there was in fact enough contact from Cook on Gakpo to see him fall.

The angle is from behind the incident and Cook appears to drag his foot across Gakpo's path before the Liverpool man fell to the ground.

If anyone in your life is arguing about that penalty decision, show them this. You’re welcome x pic.twitter.com/cvVstqRFlL

— Ste Hoare (@stehoare) February 1, 2025

Arne Slot gave his verdict on whether England’s decision was the correct one after the full-time whistle.

“I haven’t seen it back but one of my players is on a clear one-on-one with the goalkeeper and he’s fallen down,” said Slot. “So, either he makes a dive or they touch him. If they touch him that for me is a penalty.

“I can come up with three, four, five examples (this season) where we didn’t have the luck or the decision we deserved. That’s always the difficult thing in football, people will always say there’s that luck for Liverpool or for the one that is the one that is number one at the moment.

“This one is nothing to do with luck, it’s a clear one v one.”