Jurgen Klopp Clarifies Infamous Replay Comments
Jurgen Klopp has insisted he and his players have moved on from the controversy surrounding the defeat to Tottenham.
Joel Matip’s stoppage-time own goal saw Liverpool fall to their first defeat of the 2023/24 season on Saturday, after suffering a VAR mix-up that led to Luis Diaz’s first-half opener being incorrectly ruled out for offside.
The incident has led to an investigation, while refereeing body the PGMOL has released audio of the conversations between referee Simon Hooper and those in the VAR room in an attempt to clarify what was described as ‘significant human error’.
In addition, a Premier League panel has since ruled that Diogo Jota was incorrectly sent off during the game, which Liverpool ended with just nine players.
Ahead of Thursday’s Europa League encounter, Klopp admitted he would like to see the contentious game replayed – though he admitted that was unlikely to happen.
Liverpool, officially, have not called for a replay but a full review into the failings that occurred.
Speaking after the 2-0 win over Union Saint-Gilloise, Klopp didn’t walk back his previous comments, but claimed he had been misinterpreted, while insisting that he and the players had gotten over the game.
“I knew it will be difficult, when yesterday I spoke about the other game [against Tottenham]. You proved me, again, everybody, how the world is,” he told reporters.
“I think everybody here heard what I said but everybody understood something else. That’s okay. But if I made the impression yesterday that I was still in the game against Tottenham, I was not at all.
“That is long ago and we are over that. That’s fine and Diogo is over it as well. And Joel [Matip] could have played tonight because he is over it as well. That’s all fine.
“We are not children or whatever, we just had a few questions to answer and did that and that’s it.
“From a focus point of view, it was not a problem.”
Liverpool won a fairly comfortable contest at Anfield on Thursday night, with Ryan Gravenberch opening the scoring with his first goal since arriving from Bayern Munich this summer.
Jota, who will be suspended for the weekend’s clash with Brighton, confirmed victory late on with Liverpool’s second.
