Jürgen Klopp's verdict on Reds' 3-3 draw with Sevilla
Jürgen Klopp admitted Liverpool became 'too passive’ in the second half of their 3-3 Champions League group-stage draw with Sevilla in Spain on Tuesday night.
The Reds raced into a three-goal lead in the first half at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium, opening the scoring after just 90 seconds via Roberto Firmino.
The Brazilian grabbed a second after Sadio Mane had also netted in an outstanding display in the first 45 minutes.
However, Sevilla fought back after the break to claim a point as Wissam Ben Yedder struck twice, including a penalty, before Guido Pizarro lashed home a stoppage-time equaliser.
Read on for a summary of the manager’s post-match press conference…
On his reaction to the game and result…
The description is easy - two different halves. A fantastic first half of my team and in the second half we made the mistake that we didn’t carry on playing football. It’s normal that you try to control the game then, but a team like we are, we have to control the game with the ball – and we didn’t play football anymore. We became a little bit passive, they scored the first one and it was obvious the atmosphere changed immediately. It gave them a big boost. Until the second goal, we were reacting but after the second goal I think it was an open game again. We could have scored off counter-attacks, but we didn’t. We opened the door for them and didn’t close it anymore, so they could score in the last minute and that was the story of the game.
On why Sevilla were able to fight back in the second half…
Yes, it was extra frustrating. They are human beings and maybe [Liverpool players thought they’d won by half-time] but it was a misjudgement, if you want. Controlling the game, it is not allowed to become passive in a game like this because of that the second half is too long - 50 minutes or longer. It’s not the first time it has happened in football and it won’t be the last time. We did similar things already at home; we used our crowd and used our atmosphere. The atmosphere helped Sevilla a lot; they had to show character. If this is at Anfield and we are 3-0 up it is different, but because it was here they had to show character in the second half. They did, they fought back, and as I said, we let them come back in the game and that is our main mistake.
On whether he was satisfied with a point…
No. Before the game, and that’s maybe a strange thing, if you told me it would be a draw I would say, ‘OK, let me see the game first but it is not the worst result’ – but then when you then play that first half then you want to win, of course.
On the mentality of the players...
No, you cannot make it like this, we showed already a fantastic mentality. We showed it against - the obvious one - Dortmund, we showed it in a lot of other games. Yes, it was not perfect tonight, that's true, but it is not a general problem. In this atmosphere, yes, we need to get more and more experience. Could we have done better? 100 per cent. Do we think it's a mentality problem? 100 per cent not. It was a misjudgement. We wanted to play like we played the first half but, of course, control the game a little bit. Why should we take a lot of risk? But then you become a little bit passive and that makes no sense, it doesn't work. Free-kick, penalty, we scored twice from a set piece in a fantastic first half but two goals came from a corner. It's football and until the final whistle, everything is possible. I knew that before - I don’t doubt the mentality of the boys.
On still being in control of the group...
From tomorrow on we will know we have a point more than we had this afternoon. But in this moment - I don't think anybody can change this - it feels like we lost the game. We didn't lose the game. Ask Sevilla, they feel like they won the game but they didn't. That’s our business, that’s our life, we have to start preparing for Chelsea pretty much immediately. In this moment, it is like it is, we cannot change it anymore. Everybody wants to change it but it's not possible. We played the game already and we will again learn off it but for tonight it is too late and we have to accept the result.
