Former Premier League referee Mark Clattenburg sparked a social media backlash after comments he made about official Espen Eskas during Liverpool's Champions League match with AC Milan.
The Reds beat the Italians 3-1 in their league phase opener at the San Siro on Tuesday night - but Eskas felt the heat inside the iconic stadium at times.
And Clattenburg intimated that the ref should have been more liberal with awarding free-kicks to AC Milan to calm the home crowd down.
Arne Slot's Reds displayed great resilience as they staged a comeback through goals from Ibrahima Konate and Virgil van Dijk before Dominik Szoboszlai secured victory.
Milan had initially taken a very early lead through winger Christian Pulisic but were dominated after making it 1-0.
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During the match, Amazon Prime co-commentator Alan Shearer lauded the referee's performance. Shearer said: "He certainly hasn't been influenced by this crowd, they don't half make some noise at every decision they want. He hasn't been influenced at all.
"I think he is just evening it up there [with that decision] isn't he. If he didn't give the first one then he's not giving that one."
Clattenburg then caused quite the stir among Liverpool fans, suggesting Eskas should have contemplated dishing out free-kicks to Milan to quieten the charged atmosphere at the San Siro.
"I think the first one is definitely a free-kick," noted Clattenburg, referring to a dubious decision.
"I just think he needs to calm the crowd down, the crowd are against him. They have been putting pressure on him, we saw that with the penalty shout before that."
"I think the ref just needs to give one or two small fouls to get the judgement back."
Clattenburg's comments took Liverpool fans by surprise and they voiced their reactions on social media.
@BackseatsmanLFC posted: "Mark Clattenburg just said the ref should give a couple of 'small fouls' in Milan's favour to calm the crowd down. He was a Premier League ref for 13 years."
While @MW92_ wrote: "What Clattenburg has just said is all that is wrong with English refereeing."
@BassTunedToRed added: "Shut up, Clattenburg, the ref’s doing a fine job."
