Liverpool proved they can “go the distance” in the title chase with their stunning recovery against Manchester City, but Jürgen Klopp was confused by the Anfield stoppage-time penalty decision.
The Liverpool boss called his injury-hit team’s second-half performance the greatest he’s seen against Pep Guardiola’s champions and proof they’ll challenge City and Arsenal this season.
Liverpool took a penalty after John Stones gave them a first-half lead. Alexis Mac Allister scored.
Although Jérémy Doku caught Mac Allister with a high challenge in the final seconds, Klopp believed his team should have earned a second penalty and the chance to return to the top of the Premier League.
Liverpool’s manager was surprised that Michael Oliver and Stuart Attwell, the referee and VAR, were unmoved by their accusations.
“This situation on all positions on the pitch is 100% a foul and a yellow card,” Klopp stated. “He hit the ball because his foot was there. Without the ball, he murders him.
As simple as that. The penalty applies to all footballers worldwide.”
Liverpool manager later said he was “over it” and more excited by a title-winning performance. Klopp added: “Why would the VAR studio guy think that is not clear and obvious?
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If that’s unclear, what should you eat for lunch? Situation, not anger. It’s fine. I love how we played.
I would love us to take one of the huge chances we generated, and we were lucky when Doku hit the post in the 89th minute, but we played a great football game.
Besides the result, being there is most important to us. Go the distance. Let’s witness the return. The boys fought hard for everything.
“Arsenal is firing on all cylinders, City is City, and for us it is probably ‘How did we get through all that?’ but we are still there. Having all these games and the team situation is ridiculous.
“I saw our best 53 minutes against Manchester City today. Our play was great, and we learned about ourselves.
Nothing beats playing your best game against City and creating the chances we did counterattacks, fast thinking, long shots. How we played through their midfield was some of my best coaching.”
After Liverpool equalised on a penalty after Nathan Aké’s underhit backpass, Guardiola said his players had to overcome “a tsunami”.
Ederson, City’s key goalkeeper, was hurt after conceding a penalty for a foul on Darwin Núñez.
“I don’t know how he is but it looks ‘oh oh’,” remarked the city manager. “We talked about defending in this stadium at halftime and gave away a penalty.
Wow, it was like a tsunami for 15–20 minutes after that, then Mateo [Kovacic] came on and we had quality to keep the ball. Playing was attempted.”
Kevin De Bruyne, who created Stones’ opener with a superb corner routine, became wasteful on the ball. Kovacic replaced him.
Guardiola and his coaching staff heard the City midfielder’s complaints about being substituted.
But the City manager said: “It’s good if he’s upset. Knowing what we were missing influenced my decision. After the replacement, we kept the ball better.
“Listen, Kevin is vital to us. Despite his first-half contribution, we lost the game after they scored. We needed to level off. That was the idea.”
