Jurgen Klopp described Liverpool’s thrilling 3-2 win at 10-man Atletico Madrid as “dirty”, but says those types of wins are the most important.
In a classic group-stage encounter, Liverpool were pegged back from 2-0 up by an Antoine Griezmann double, before the Frenchman was sent off and Mo Salah grabbed the winner from the spot.
There was drama late on though as German referee Daniel Siebert awarded 10-man Atletico a spot kick for a Diogo Jota foul on Jose Gimenez, but VAR intervened and after consulting the pitchside monitor, Siebert reversed his decision.
Atletico were unhappy with Siebert for the majority of the evening, in particular for Griezmann’s sending off, after unknowingly catching Roberto Firmino with a high foot.
Klopp was delighted to leave with three points, on a night he aptly described as “dirty”.
“It was a tough game, come on!” he told BT Sport. “Honestly, how you win it, I couldn’t care less! The dirty ones are the really important ones! On a night like this, getting three points is really massive.”
“Our penalty is a penalty. And I think the other one is not a penalty, but I don’t see it very often when they take it back [to the pitchside monitor]. I didn’t expect that, but I think it’s the right decision.
“The red card is for sure unlucky, but it’s still a red card. Boot in the face and stuff like this, we’ve had red cards like this in the past.”
The drama didn’t end on full time as Atletico boss Diego Simeone rushed down the tunnel without shaking Klopp’s hands, and though the Liverpool boss said his actions “weren’t right”, he could empathise with the Argentine.
