Was clear, obvious and not a penalty, proclaims Jurgen Klopp
Jurgen Klopp has claimed that the foul on Jose Callejon was not a penalty as the Spaniard had jumped before the challenge. It was a crucial moment in the game, as it allowed Napoli to open the scoring before they doubled their lead via a rare Virgil Van Dijk mistake to walk away with a 2-0 win.
Liverpool’s terrible away run continued and the Reds are now nearly two years without an away win in the Champions League group stage. Their last win away from Anfield was in 2017 against Maribor, but this loss to Napoli will hurt more than ever. It wasn’t because the home side dominated the game, which Liverpool did rather well, but instead it was because of two decisions towards the end of the game.
The first one saw Jose Callejon fouled in the Liverpool box under little to no pressure from Andrew Robertson, which saw the referee point to the spot and the VAR check decided not to overturn. It gave Dries Mertens a clear cut chance on goal which he tucked in before Fernando Llorente doubled their advantage in the dying moments of the game. The second goal came from a Virgil Van Dijk error, allowing the former Tottenham star to pounce on the misplaced pass and double the lead.
However, in an interview, Jurgen Klopp has revealed that it wasn’t a penalty as Callejon had jumped before he made any contact with the Liverpool left-back. The Reds boss added that he believed that while Liverpool did control parts of the game, they should have been much better in the final third.
"For me, it's clear and obvious, no penalty, because Callejon jumps before he has any contact. But we cannot change that so we have to be critical with ourselves. We did well in a lot of moments, we played a lot of good football but we didn't finish off. In the second half, we had this wild game, we were running, they were running.Â
"They've killed everybody on the pitch, started controlling again and then we've conceded a penalty. Of course, that doesn't help and I've seen it now, I don't think that's a penalty,” Klopp said reports Sky Sports.
The Liverpool boss was also very unhappy with his misfiring forward line, who failed to do anything to even threaten Alex Meret with their link-up play well below their usual standard, forcing only two real saves out of Napoli goalkeeper across the 90 minutes. It changed the game for Liverpool, and effectively gave their back-line more work to do, which is not something that pleased Klopp.
"We controlled it in moments, but we had not enough chances in the end. What you saw was a lot of respect from both sides, we both defended well and each ball we lost, or they lost, was immediately a threat. The last ball is the most difficult ball anyway, and if you are not in the right circumstances it's even more difficult. And so there were moments when we should have done better, for sure," concluded the German.