alisson becker liverpool
Jurgen Klopp has paid tribute to Alisson Becker after the goalkeeper rescued Liverpool with a stoppage-time winner against West Brom. Klopp said the goal was a “special moment” for a “wonderful person” after the game on Sunday evening as the Reds kept alive their top-four hopes. And the Liverpool boss likened the header to Chelsea striker Olivier Giroud for how well placed the late winner was.
Jurgen Klopp said: “You have to play through in difficult spaces through the lines, so we had chances but we didn’t use them. Then we scored a goal in the last second with our goalie. What a goal! What a worldy! What an unbelievable goal. The technique was absolutely insane and it couldn’t have hit a better person, couldn’t have been a better moment, it was just perfect today. But we didn’t have a lot of these moments in the season so I don’t think we should take it for granted just because it happened once, we should keep going.”
On the decision to send Alisson up for the last-minute corner,
Jurgen Klopp added: “I only looked at the corner, so I don’t exactly know. I saw Ali starting to come up and my part for the goal is that I didn’t shout ‘stay back’. I just let him run and no, at the last minute of the game, nobody has to ask the keeper to go into the opposite box when you have to win. He went up there and (laughs) he scored a goal! Incredible. Wow. We watched it back in the dressing room 10 times already, it is absolutely incredible. How I said, if someone like Olivier Giroud scores this, everyone says it is a world-class goal. When Alisson is doing it, you have to say the same. The way his team-mates showed today how much they like him is the best description. He is a wonderful, wonderful person and he is funny, smart, thoughtful, intense in moments, he is just a great guy. It couldn’t have happened to a better person to have such a special moment with everything he has gone through, I am really, really happy for him.”
Alisson’s goal came after Mohamed Salah’s 31st goal of the season had cancelled out Hal Robson-Kanu’s opener to leave Liverpool within a point of fourth-place Chelsea who entertain Leicester, in third, on Tuesday night.
Jurgen Klopp said: “We knew today it would be a tough one. You play against a team who went through a lot of pressure situations and in the end they couldn’t make it but they showed a really good attitude. They gave us a proper fight but then at 1-0 down life is not easier and in a game when you have the ball all the time, pretty much, and each time you don’t have the ball it is a set-piece [for West Brom]. How can you defend set-pieces 100 per cent against a team like West Brom? It is just tricky. So it was a tough job to do and I didn’t think one second about momentum. I just wanted us to be full of desire and calm anyway. That is what I saw. We had to play football and you cannot really force it with shots from 35 or 40 yards.”
