Jurgen Klopp led Liverpool to suffer a defeat at the hands of Real Madrid which could mean that the hope of qualifying for the next round of the UEFA Champions League campaign this season has gotten slimmer for the Premier League club.
The Premier League club traveled to Madrid to secure at least a point against the Spanish La Liga giants but it was not to be for Jurgen Klopp and his boys.
Klopp and his boys went down 1-0 in the 27th minute of the match thanks to a strike from Madrid’s Vinicius Junior. Afterward, Marco Asensio made it 2-0 for Real Madrid in the 36th minute.
Throughout the first half of the game, Liverpool could not do much as they struggled in the first 45 minutes to get beyond Madrid’s defense. They succeeded in scoring a goal in the 51st minute, thanks to Mohamed Salah’s strike.
While Liverpool were trying to get back to the game, Real Madrid scored the third goal to make Liverpool’s task of qualifying for the next round of the competition tougher.
With the 3-1 win over Liverpool, the Premier League club is condemned to win the return leg which is scheduled to take place at Anfield Stadium on April 14, 2021. The scoreline that could help Liverpool to scale through to the next round of the competition is at least a 3-0 victory over Real Madrid.
After the first leg of the quarter-final match, Jurgen Klopp said Liverpool did not play well enough and the club deserved the defeat at the hands of coach Zinedine Zidane and his boys.
“First and foremost I don’t think we deserved to win tonight, we didn’t play good enough and that is my first concern,” said Klopp.
“Especially in the first half, we didn’t play good enough football. We conceded the first goal, served the second on a plate [after Trent Alexander-Arnold’smistake], but that was not the real problem of the game.
“Of course conceding goal is a problem but it is not the problem. In the second half we did better, we scored our goal which is the positive of the night and that’s how it is.
“Did we deserve more than the 3-1? I’m not sure.”
Jurgen Klopp is not happy how Sadio Mane of Liverpool was treated
After the UEFA Champions League quarter-final game between Liverpool and Real Madrid on Tuesday, April 6, the coach of Liverpool, Jurgen Klopp said the match referee, Felix Brych, did not treat Sadio Mane well.
According to the German tactician, Sadio Mane was brought down a couple of times but the referee decided to overlook what the Senegalese winger was going through. The coach cited an instance where Mane was tackled close to Madrid’s eighteen-yard box but the referee didn’t deem it enough to give Liverpool a free-kick.
“The situation with Sadio, what the ref did tonight I have to say I don’t understand,” Klopp said.
“For me, that was something personal because he dealt with the situation with Sadio, which was a clear foul like he was a diver or whatever.
“From that moment on whenever Sadio went down, he didn’t get anything. That is not right. That is what I told him after the game, that I thought he was unfair with Sadio.
“That doesn’t change anything at all. He [Brych] didn’t lose the game. We were not good enough to get a better result, but in these moments you need just an ‘OK’ ref. That would have been enough.”
4 – Across all European competitions, no side have beaten Liverpool more often than Real Madrid (4, level with Benfica), with the Reds suffering defeat in each of their last four encounters with los Blancos. Overawed. pic.twitter.com/Y2dfIYHGJh
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) April 6, 2021
