Mark Clattenburg claimed that referee Espen Eskas should have awarded more free-kicks against the home team to calm down the crowd.

On Tuesday night, Arne Slot's side found themselves 1-0 down early on at San Siro after former star Christian Pulisic put Milan ahead in the third minute.

However, the Reds fought back, flipping the script with goals from Ibrahima Konate and handing Liverpool a 2-1 lead heading into the break.

From there, they went on to wrap up proceedings in the 67th minute through Dominik Szoboszlai.

But it was the comments of former referee Clattenburg that raised eyebrows.

During the Amazon Prime broadcast of the clash, former striker turned pundit Alan Shearer remarked that he was impressed by Eskas and how he was not overawed or influenced by the occasion.

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, isn't he? If he didn't give the first one then he's not giving that one.

'However, Clattenburg then dropped a bombshell on Liverpool fans by claiming Eskas needed to start dishing out free-kicks to Milan in order to 'calm the crowd down' at San Siro.

Clattenburg said, 'I think the first one is definitely a free-kick,' referring to a decision made by Eskas, who dished out five yellow cards, including one for Milan boss Paulo Fonseca.

'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.

'Both Shearer and commentator Jon Champion fell silent, presumably baffled by the wild claim, which also left Liverpool supporters on social media raging.

One fan wrote, '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.

' They added, 'He's then subsequently doubled and tripled down on it when given the opportunity to retract.

' A third said, 'It’s mental, I couldn’t believe it when he said that.

' A fourth commented, 'Commentators went silent for 30 seconds after he said that, stunned.

' And a fifth added, 'What on earth is Clattenburg talking about?? Give Milan some cheap free-kicks to get the crowd back onside? It's not Gladiators you silly c***.

'