During Liverpool’s victory over Newcastle United, the attacker was charged with diving.
Diogo Jota, a standout for Liverpool, has addressed backlash that he faced after a contentious incident during his team’s victory over Newcastle United at home earlier this month.
In the last 30 minutes of the Reds’ 4-2 victory over Eddie Howe’s team, the Portugal winger came off the bench and contributed to the game’s last goal, which put an end to any chance the Magpies would have salvaged a point at Anfield.
Jota went through the United defence and around goalie Martin Dubravka with just under five minutes left. Then, he went down under what appeared to be light contact from the Magpies stopper.
Newcastle fans reacted angrily to the purported “dive,” and in the aftermath of the game, a number of analysts supported them. The legendary Alan Shearer of the Magpies called the incident “embarrassing” on his X account, which was originally Twitter. He then repeated the same remarks on the podcast “The Rest is Football.” Jota has now addressed the criticism he received from pundits and offered his opinion on the matter, but he did not specifically mention the former England captain and Newcastle player.
“Listen, of course I saw some comments from ex-players and people who are paid to talk about situations,” he said to the reporters.
“All I can say is that I didn’t feel the conditions to stay up, and even the keeper said it was a touch.” That concludes our discussion. If Mo (Salah) were to receive a penalty, would I prefer watch the ball go in the net? Indeed, without a doubt. That’s my favourite thing to do: score goals. I only have that to say.
