Jurgen Klopp: Dirty three points are very often the most important

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was understandably satisfied with the hard-fought 3-2 win against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League group match. The action-packed game on Tuesday was a feast to the neutral fans. The Reds raced into a two-goal lead by the 13th minute of the Group B tie at Estadio Metropolitano, through Mohamed Salah’s deflected shot and Naby Keita’s fabulous volley. Diego Simeone’s boys fought back to level before the break thanks to a double from Antoine Griezmann. However, the Frenchman’s night turned from joy to despair in no time. Griezmann was sent off for a high boot early in the second half.

Salah then slotted in a penalty on 78 minutes to restore the advantage for the visitors. As a result, Liverpool have moved five points clear in the group. In his press conference, Klopp gave an assessment of the match, saying, “I’m not surprised about that – when these two teams face each other then some drama I would say is guaranteed. Both teams are proper fighting units, are used to fighting for the things they want to reach, and that’s clear. Of course, the story of the game is a special one because you don’t very often, that easy, go 2-0 up against Atletico after 13 minutes.” 

“I said it now a couple of times but it’s still true, the human brain can be your biggest enemy. We misunderstood that situation completely. We wanted to control the game in the wrong way, we played in the wrong spaces and obviously gave two cheap goals away. The set-piece is a nice routine which we knew about so we could have defended it better. And the other goal, I think we all agree: I don’t think we ever conceded a goal like this, that looked really not good. That’s 2-2.”

‘We are still here so let’s give it a try’

Klopp then revealed how the team decided to approach the second half during the half-time break. “In half-time, I think everybody here in the room and who watched the game thought, ‘OK, Atletico are now on the winning side so that will go in only one direction.’ But we thought, ‘We are still here so let’s give it a try.’ I told the boys at half-time, it’s really positive because we know much more now than we knew before the game about them, we just have to use the right spaces and to play in the right spaces and then everything will be fine,” he added. 

“That’s what we tried to do, but then obviously the game got even more dramatic because of the decisions and the things that happened. I heard it now already a lot of times. Of course I understand that Atletico people or Spanish people are upset or don’t like the decisions, but I think our penalty is a clear penalty. And the penalty for Atletico, in my understanding, is not a penalty. 

“But when he whistled it, I was a bit surprised that they took it back because I only saw it once and I didn’t think it was a penalty, it was clear what they wanted in that moment. And the red card, of course it’s unlucky but I think it’s a red card – you cannot change that, the foot is in the face, that’s what you get red cards for. That’s not cool but it happened. That’s the story of the game, pretty much.

“We still had to defend with all we have because even with 10 men they were quite intense to play. But the dirty three points are very often the most important, and they were dirty tonight of course. It was not our best football but we got them and that’s a big step.”