Cardiff's 2-0 defeat - their 10th home loss of the season - leaves them three points from safety with three games remaining
Monday 22 April 2019 13:22, UK
Neil Warnock likened Mohamed Salah to Olympic diver Tom Daley after his "soft" late penalty sealed Liverpool's 2-0 victory at Cardiff.
Relegation-threatened Cardiff frustrated Liverpool for large parts of Sunday's meeting in south Wales, but Georginio Wijnaldum's second-half strike and James Milner's penalty restored the Reds' two-point lead over Manchester City.
Liverpool were given the chance to make sure of the victory when Cardiff captain Sean Morrison was adjudged to have hauled Salah to ground in the area by referee Martin Atkinson, but Warnock accused the Egyptian of theatrically going to ground.
"I thought it was a soft penalty," Warnock told his post-match press conference. "We gave the referee the opportunity to give it.
"He [Morrison] had his arms around Salah but the last bit was a 9.9 Tom Daley job. I don't think he could have got much higher off the diving board."
Cardiff were accused of failing to water the pitch at the Cardiff City Stadium in a bid to halt Liverpool's free-flowing game.
Reds boss Jurgen Klopp labelling the playing surface 'dangerous', but Warnock refuted the accusations of underhand tactics, adding: "It was watered before the game.
"I see where [Jurgen] is coming from but as far as I'm aware the pitch was watered before kick-off. That is unless the groundsman thought there was a hosepipe ban!"
Cardiff's 10th home defeat of the season leaves them three points from safety with just three games remaining to secure their top-flight status.
"I did feel we could get something today, but one piece of slack marking at a corner against the quality they had was all it took," Warnock said.
"I'm really proud of my players today, I couldn't fault any of them. We gave the fans one or two exciting moments but it's tough when you come up against such quality.
"We have got three tough games, we needed things going for us. We haven't had rub of the green in the last few weeks, we fought until the end and the fans are still with us."
