Referee Kevin Friend awarded Liverpool an incorrect spot-kick on the advice of his assistant.
A challenge by Sunderland defender John Mensag on Liverpool ace Jay Spearing occurred outside the box, but the referee decided to hand Liverpool an penalty.
Carragher told Sky Sports News: “I thought it was a penalty, but then I looked at half-time and I don’t think it was, was it? It was just outside.
“Everyone knows goals change games – up to then it had been pretty even and Sunderland had been putting a bit of pressure on.
“Every week you can look at different incidents and you can always say it changes the game.
“Maybe it has gone our way but thankfully we got the other (goal) to make sure so you could say we would still have won 1-0.”
