Gnagnon offers apology for odious tackle on Liverpool youngster
Sevilla defender Joris Gnagnon has apologised for his “odious” tackle on Yasser Larouci that saw the youngster stretchered off in a pre-season friendly against Liverpool.
The Frenchman saw red for the nasty challenge as Liverpool lost 2-1 to the La Liga side in Boston.
Writing on Twitter after the game, Gnagnon said: “I would like to publicly apologise towards Liverpool, the family of the player and its supporters.
“It was an odious act on my part. Whatever the reason, it’s not what should be seen on a football pitch.
“All my prayers are with the player and his family.”
Van Dijk said: “To put in a tackle like that, especially on a young player who has been doing so well in pre-season, I think it says something about him…”
Milner told LFCTV: “Was it too much? I thought so yes, it was a disgraceful tackle.
“We know it’s only a friendly, but I mean, you don’t see many red cards in friendlies, do you.
“Their guy said it is down to the referee and it’s a tackle and a foul, but it’s very disappointing. We [responded] in the right way.”
Jurgen Klopp also gave his thoughts on the incident at full-time and claimed it was only due to luck that Larouci had escaped serious injury.
“He hit him full throttle and, in that moment, [if it was] a little bit different position where he hit him then it’s done. He rolls… he is a sports boy so that was OK, nothing happened there,” Klopp said.
“I don’t know 100 per cent. It looks like he was lucky but I only spoke quickly to the doc and that’s what he said, but we have to see.”
Commentin further, Klopp told Liverpool’s official website: “I would love pretty early in the season that you write stories about the game without my headlines because whatever I say about it will be the headline of the game.
“We can talk about football, which was not too good. We could have done much better, probably, maybe, because of the circumstances and different situations. But in general, not this game, I don’t like overly hard games because I think a challenge is there to win the ball, that’s the only reason and there are rules.
“I don’t want to say anything about this specific game now.”
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