This archive report was first published on 18 September 2019.
On September 17, 2019, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was left fuming after a contentious penalty decision handed Napoli a Champions League victory.
Awarded in the 82nd minute, the penalty was the result of a dive by Napoli's Jose Callejon, which sparked a heated reaction from Klopp.
“That was the game-changer tonight,” Klopp said, expressing his disappointment at the decision.
He continued, “I’m sorry, but when the player jumps before there is contact then it cannot be a penalty. I can say a lot of things about it, but then it would look like a bad loser.”
Despite the defeat, Klopp remained optimistic about his team's performance, stating that they had created many chances and defended well until the penalty decision.
“It was much better than last year when we lost 1-0 – there were a lot of good moments, a lot of great counter-attacks,” he said.
“Until the penalty we defended well, very compact and that’s how you play the game against a strong side. We are really critical with ourselves, but it was not a bad performance, we did enough to win against Napoli.”
