Jurgen Klopp Liverpool
Jurgen Klopp says he agreed with all three key decisions from referee Daniel Siebert as Liverpool beat Atletico Madrid 3-2 in the Champions League. In a series of big second-half calls from the official, Antoine Griezmann was sent off at 2-2 for a high boot on Roberto Firmino before the visitors were awarded a spot-kick when Diogo Jota was brought down. After Mohamed Salah had converted, Atletico thought they had a penalty of their own up the other end when Jota appeared to force Jose Gimenez into a tumble. However, after consulting with the pitch-side monitor, the penalty decision was reversed.
Jurgen Klopp said: “I heard it already a lot of times and I understand that the Atletico people or Spanish are upset by the decisions, the penalty for us and the penalty for Atletico. In my estimation it was not a penalty for them and I was surprised they took it back because it was clear what they wanted at that moment. With the red card, of course it is unlucky. But I think it is a red card, we cannot change that. It was in the face. So that was the story of the game. We still had to defend because even with 10 men they are tough to play against, so it was like a dirty three points. But it was the most important.”
Jurgen Klopp added: “I am not surprised about this game, when these two teams play each other, some drama is guaranteed. Both teams are proper fighting units and are used to fighting for things they want to reach. But the story of the game is because you don’t get very often that easily 2-0 up against Atletico Madrid. We wanted to control the game and did it in the wrong way, played in the wrong spaces and obviously gave away two cheap goals. The set-piece was a nice routine we knew about and we could have defended better and the other goal I don’t think we could concede a goal like this. So it’s 2-2 and half-time, I think everyone here thought Atletico were in the ascendancy and the game was only going in one direction. We were still in it, so we gave it a try. It was positive at half time because we knew more about them and how we could play in the right spaces. So that is what we tried to do. It was an intense game to be honest, I didn’t see a situation where it was constantly on the edge. The handshake situation with Diego, I wanted to shake his hand and he was just running off, so I could have just turned around. His reaction was like mine (when Atletico knocked Liverpool out at Anfield in 2020) not too good, but I was like he was. I was not overly happy with my reaction either to be honest, but it is not too bad. Next time I see him we will for sure shake hands. There is nothing between us. We don’t really speak during games. He is emotional and I think that should not be a surprise but I was kind of calm with most of the situations during a really intense game.”
