Steven Gerrard suffered defeat in Ettifaq’s league match against Al-Orobah
Steven Gerrard is ready to file a complaint against a Saudi official after poor refereeing in Ettifaq’s 3-2 defeat to Al-Orobah on Sunday. The Liverpool legend had enjoyed an impressive start to the season with three consecutive wins, but a 3-0 home defeat at the end of September to Sadio Mane’s Al-Nassr led to a collapse in form.
Ettifaq are now without a win in three games and have lost their last two, dropping to ninth in the Saudi Pro League table. They look as though they would arrest that form with goals from Joao Costa and former Liverpool favourite Gini Wijnaldum put them 2-1 ahead against Al-Orobah, but a straight red card was shown to Abdullah Radif in the ninth minute of first half stoppage time.
The sending off was issued in bizarre circumstances, as Radif appeared to land awkwardly on top of his opponent after being upended by a tackle. Two goals in the second half then won it for Al-Orobah and left Gerrard seething with the officials.
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Speaking in his post-match press conference, he said: “I am not happy with the referee decision at the red card. It was a really bad decision and it changed the whole match going and made it more difficult.
“A complaint will be filed against the referee. He was never close to what is required from the beginning of the match to the end of it.
“We did come back after the first goal and the opponent scored a goal that it’s our fault, we should have been stationed in the right place.”
Ettifaq next play Al Feiha away from home on Saturday.
