Football
Glenn Price, Liverpool correspondent 5y

Liverpool to avoid punishment for selectively clearing snowy pitch vs. Leicester - sources

Liverpool are set to avoid punishment for their ground staff selectively clearing snow off the Anfield pitch during Wednesday's 1-1 draw with Leicester City, sources have told ESPN FC.

Sources have said that the Premier League are satisfied no rules were breached when, at half-time, Anfield staff only removed snow from the half of the pitch Liverpool were attacking in the second period.

Leicester equalised right on the stroke of half-time through Harry Maguire as Liverpool were then frustrated in their attempts to find a winner in the second half.

Snow began to fall prior to kick-off and continued while the match was being played, with Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp believing conditions made it difficult for his side.

"The snow is actually not a problem, the problem is when it stays on the pitch and that was the case," Klopp said at his postmatch news conference.

"The ball didn't roll really, and when you have the ball for 70-80 percent of the time, then it makes life really uncomfortable."

Virgil van Dijk admitted the condition of the surface was challenging but conceded it was something both teams had to deal with.

"The pitch was horrendous, yeah," the centre-back told reporters. "It was full of ice obviously, but they need to deal with that as well. We had most of the ball and then it's difficult to break them down then."

The draw saw Liverpool move five points clear of Manchester City in the Premier League title race, although a win would have stretched that lead to seven.

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