Doucoure wanted to provoke our fans – Van

 Virgil van Dijk accused Everton’s Abdoulaye Doucoure of provok­ing Liverpool fans after a fiery Merseyside derby descended into chaos, following James Tarkows­ki’s late equaliser.

The Reds were leading 2-1 and heading nine points clear at the top of the Premier League before Tarkowski struck in the eighth minute of stoppage time to provide a dramatic, memorable ending to the last derby at Good­ison Park.

Doucoure was then seen cele­brating in front of the Liverpool fans, prompting a shove from Curtis Jones and a mass confron­tation between players from both sides.

Both Doucoure and Jones were sent off for second yellow cards by referee Michael Oliver, while Reds boss Arne Slot and his assis­tant Sipke Hulshoff also saw red.

“We saw how they celebrated the goal, they have all the right to,” Reds captain Van Dijk told TNT Sports.

“I think Abdoulaye Doucoure wanted to provoke our fans, I think that is what I saw and Cur­tis Jones didn’t think it was the right thing to do. And then you know what happens if there is a little tussle.

“I didn’t think the referee had the game under control. Both teams had to deal with it. This was their cup final.

“I think the referee had a big part in the game, in terms of cer­tain challenges were given as fouls and similar weren’t.”

Following Tarkowski’s late equaliser with a superb finish, Doucoure went over towards the away fans and was caught on tele­vision cameras making a shushing gesture.

He was confronted by Liver­pool substitute Jones, before a large tussle between both sets of players broke out, while a bottle was seen to be thrown at the group.

It was eventually broken up by stewards and, afterwards, referee Oliver showed second yellow cards to both Doucoure and Jones.

The drama was not over, however, as Liverpool boss, Slot, and his assistant, Hulshoff, were shown straight red cards after try­ing to make their feelings known to the officials.

Slot had been seen moments after Tarkowski’s equalising gesticulating to suggest there had been a foul in the build-up to the goal.—BBC