Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp cut short and walked off from a post-match interview after watching his club score a dramatic 3-2 Champions League win over Atletico Madrid this morning.
Red hot Mohamed Salah netted Liverpool’s winner from the penalty spot after Atletico star Antoine Griezmann scored two goals and was sent off.
Griezmann’s boot made contact with Roberto Firmino’s head as he reached high for the ball at the Metropolitano.
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Klopp later appeared upset when rival manager Diego Simeone made a swift exit from the sidelines after the final whistle and did not shake hands.
So both the refereeing and that non-exchange were obvious topics to explore with Klopp in his post-match interview – which quickly turned fiesty.
Here’s how it went down.
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Interviewer: Do you have anything to say about the referee tonight?
Klopp: What can I say? Do you think it was not a penalty?
Interviewer: I don’t know. The penalty wasn’t but I was talking about the red card.
Klopp: Oh, I didn’t see it back but if the foot is in the face, we’ve got red cards like this. Of course it was not intentional, he doesn’t want to do it but if the foot is there it’s a dangerous game and you can give a red card for that. And that’s how it is. I can imagine that in Spain nobody likes that red card, I get that, but obviously we had nothing to do with that.
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Interviewer: And the last one. We have seen you very angry at the end of the game, I don’t know what was the reason because I suppose you have to be very happy, because of the result?
Klopp: Why was I angry?
Interviewer: I don’t know, because you want to shake the hand?
Klopp: Come on, I’m not such an idiot that you… a little bit of a question here – I wasn’t angry at all.
Interviewer: Ah! OK.
Klopp: I wasn’t angry. Have a look. If you want to make a story of that I can imagine. I want to shake his hand, he doesn’t want it. In that moment I can understand that he was running inside. He’s emotional, I’m emotional and you are not a nice person because you want to make a story of that.
Interviewer: No. I was trying to…
Klopp: You said I was angry. When was I angry? I am now angry because of your question. Come on.
Klopp then walked off, much to the amusement of Mark Bosnich, Craig Foster and Max Rushden in the Stan Sport studios.
“That is the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time,” Foster said.
“That’s actually a great question.”
Rushden wasn’t so sure.
“You think? I’d be so sick – I mean if Jurgen Klopp said I wasn’t a nice person, I think I’d just give up and walk away from the game,” he quipped.
“He just hammered the guy,” Foster continued.
“The guy was right to say ‘you were upset, he walked away without shaking your hand, that’s abnormal, so what do you think about that?’
“It’s totally fine but he is emotional, he’s still emotional, as he should be… and also on Klopp’s side, if he’s a little bit vulnerable or something then it’s attack back, it’s your fault then I don’t have to deal with it.
“But he’s great, he explained it in the end.”
Former Socceroos and Manchester United goalkeeper Bosnich was blissfully bemused.
“If he’d lost or drawn I could maybe understand but when you win you turn around and go ‘yeah sure, whatever, he didn’t want to shake my hand, whatever.’
“That was a good one.”
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The win left Liverpool at the top of Group B with a perfect nine points from three matches, five points more than Atletico.
Klopp elaborated on the Simeone snub at the press conference.
“I wanted to shake his hand – we are both emotional,” he said.
“He was angry with the game – nothing else. When we see each other again we will 100 per cent shake hands…
“I wanted to shake his hand but he was running off. I don’t think he did anything wrong. I am more unhappy with my own reaction – we were both emotional. Next time we see each other we will definitely shake hands…
“We don’t like that but yes the situation is clear. I want to shake his hand. His reaction for sure, like mine, was not so cool. The next time we see each other we will shake hands definitely. He was obviously angry, not with me but with the game. There is nothing else.”
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