After a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Inter Milan on Tuesday, March 8, 2022, the manager of Liverpool football club, Jurgen Klopp, slammed Inter’s Alexis Sanchez for his challenge on Fabinho and Thiago Alcantara.
During the UEFA Champions League round of 16-second leg match, Sanchez first tackled Thiago in the first half and then tackled Fabinho in the second half to earn referee Mateu Lahoz’s red card in the 63rd minute.
Alexis Sanchez’s red card came two minutes after Inter Milan’s Lautaro Martinez gave the Italian side the lead in the 61st minute with his thunderbolt.
Alexis Sánchez’s game by numbers vs Liverpool:
— Statman Dave (@StatmanDave) March 8, 2022
100% successful long passes (4/4)
81% pass accuracy
8 attempted ground duels
4 ground duels won
3 dribbles
1 red card
A solid performance up until the red card… 🔴🤦♂️ pic.twitter.com/idchGWJB0v
Hence, when the Italian side thought the one-goal lead could inspire them to score more goals and overturn the first leg 0-2 defeat, they were forced to play with a man down which did not help their course.
Even though Liverpool had a man advantage, they could not defeat Inter Milan at Anfield. However, the 1-0 defeat was not enough to prevent the Premier League side from qualifying for the next round of the tournament thanks to Liverpool’s 2-0 away win in the first leg.
Liverpool made it to the quarter-final stage of the 2021-2022 UEFA Champions League campaign 2-1 on aggregate.
After the game, coach Jurgen Klopp stressed that his team deserved to qualify for the next round of the tournament.
During the post-match press conference, reporters asked Klopp to comment on Alexis Sanchez’s red card, the German coach noted that the red card was not worth talking about.
“I don’t understand why we have to discuss the red card”, Klopp said. “If you can win the ball only if you endanger an opponent when you do it, then you don’t win the ball. If Fabinho goes in with the same intention, with the leg out, then both players get injured.
“I think he was lucky he hadn’t got a red card in the first half, going in so high on Thiago onto his knee. Passion is good, absolutely good, but if it leads to this kind of thing then it doesn’t help.”
📺 Jurgen Klopp on the Sanchez red card:
— Anfield Watch (@AnfieldWatch) March 8, 2022
“I think he is lucky he didn’t get a different colour in the first half. Passion is good but if it leads to these things, it doesn’t help.” 🔴 pic.twitter.com/YyhXnDzhRI
Jurgen Klopp believes the Inter Milan game was the right game to lose
Liverpool went into the UEFA Champions League round of 16 second-leg game after a 12-match unbeaten run. Unfortunately, the Premier League team faced a resilient Inter Milan side that wanted to reverse the first leg 2-0 defeat.
Unfortunately for the Italian side, all they could get from the game was a 1-0 victory which was not enough to overturn the 2 goals deficit. Their chance to win the game became slimmer after Alexis Sanchez was shown the red card in the 63rd minute.
After the game, Liverpool’s coach insisted that the game was one of the games that the club could afford to lose.
“The art of football is to lose the right games – I still hate it, but if there was any game to lose, it was tonight because the main target is to go through and we’ve done that,” Klopp said.
“It’s not that I’m over the moon, I’m happy we went through because when we saw the draw, we thought it was a tough one, and we deserved it over the two legs.
“We had some difficulties, one of those is the quality of the opponent, they are a really good team. But we still had our chances and didn’t score. I didn’t like our counter-press, when we lost the ball we had to chase the situation and that was not exactly how I wanted it.
“But in the end, you have to respect the quality of the opponent. And had we used our chances we still could have won the game.”
📺 Jurgen Klopp on tonight:
— Anfield Watch (@AnfieldWatch) March 8, 2022
“The art of football is to lose the right games. I still hate it, but if there’s any game we could afford to lose it was tonight.” 🔴 pic.twitter.com/UhhYVC8ofH
Inter Milan coach Simone Inzaghi was angrier for the home defeat than for the red card Alexis Sanchez received:
During the post-match press conference, the coach of Inter Milan, Simone Inzaghi was angrier for the 2-0 defeat his team suffered in the first leg of the round than the red card showed to Alexis Sanchez in the second leg.
Just like some football critics, coach Inzaghi sounded like he and his team were robbed in both the first leg and the second leg of the UEFA Champions League round of 16 by Liverpool.
The coach said: “We were very bitter about what happened at the San Siro; over the two games we were the equals of a really strong team in Liverpool.
“We knocked them back when we scored our goal, but then Sanchez got sent off and we saw what happened.
“We’ve got to this stage for the first time in about 11 years, we played against possibly the best team in Europe and were their equals. We put in two very good performances, and sometimes it just takes a single episode to take the course of a game.
“This evening we played well, in the second half we began to get the upper hand, scored a goal, and then Sanchez was sent off. I’m more bitter about what happened in the San Siro than tonight.
“We feel upset about having a player sent off just when we were getting the upper hand in the game.”
What is Alexis Sanchez’s contract status at Inter Milan and his stats in the 2021-2022 season:
After playing for Barcelona, Arsenal, and Manchester United, Alexis Sanchez first joined Inter Milan on loan from Manchester United on August 29, 2019. Afterward, United allowed the 33-year-old Chilean striker to join Inter Milan permanently on September 1, 2020.
Based on the contract he signed with Inter Milan, Alexis Sanchez reportedly earns £175,000 per week. His annual take-home is £9,100,000. His net worth is estimated to be €50 million.
So far this season, Sanchez has scored 6 goals and provided five assists in 29 games for Inter Milan in all competitions.
It might interest you to know that Sanchez broke up with his long-term girlfriend Mayte Rodriguez in 2018. At the time of publishing this report, it could not be confirmed whether the footballer was in a relationship.
2 responses to “Alexis Sanchez of Inter Milan was attacked by Jurgen Klopp of Liverpool for his challenge on Fabinho and Thiago Alcantara”
Alexis Sanches shouldn’t have been sent off, the referee cheated for Liverpool and now they are in the next round.
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