Ian Wright stunned by what 27-year-old Liverpool player did during second-half vs Newcastle United

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Ian Wright couldn’t quite believe what Diogo Jota did just before Liverpool’s fourth goal against Newcastle United.

Having been put in by an absolutely gorgeous Alexis Mac Allister pass, Jota was in on-goal in the final five minutes of the game.

After rounding Martin Dubravka, the Portugal international looked set to bury the ball into an empty net. But all of sudden, Jota hit the deck. Penalty to Liverpool.

Taking to X just after incident, former Arsenal striker couldn’t quite understand what he’d seen from the Reds striker.

“Would rather go down for a penalty than put the ball in an empty net! Seen it all!” wrote the pundit.

Wright stunned by Jota

We’re not quite sure what there is to be confused about here from Wrighty.

It was certainly a soft penalty on Jota, but there was contact all the same. The insinuation from the pundit is that the player has deliberately gone down instead of scoring.

But why oh why would a striker like Jota – who feeds off goals – do that?

Surely the most simple answer is that the Liverpool man was clipped. Had he been able to, he would have stayed on his feet to score. But he couldn’t.

That also makes the post-match talk of the decision being a controversial one as being slightly redundant.

No, there wasn’t too much contact from the Newcastle goalkeeper, but there really didn’t need to be.

Jota was bearing down on goal, any slight touch on him was going to bring him down.

In the end, it didn’t necessarily matter. Either Jota sticks it in, or Mohamed Salah buries the penalty. What’s the difference?

Personally, we’d also liked to have seen Diogo get his goal, but seeing as he was prevented from doing so, a penalty was rightfully given.