Liverpool didn’t play well during their 1-0 defeat against Atletico Madrid in Spain on Tuesday night in the Champions League.
The Premier League leaders dominated possession but they lacked the cutting edge and failed to register a single shot on target, something that has happened only twice during Jurgen Klopp’s tenure.
The Reds were frustrated with poor referring decisions as well, and Klopp didn’t mince his words when he blatantly blamed Atletico players for play-acting during the game.
In fact, the Reds boss implied that the Atletico players tried to get forward Sadio Mane sent-off during the clash at the Wanda Metropolitano.
“It’s part of football, I don’t like it,” Klopp said after the match.
“The plan was to get Sadio out of the game with a yellow card. I was afraid that his opponent would go down if Sadio only took a deep breath. After 30 minutes, three Atletico players were on the ground, not even injured.”
"I was afraid they would go down if Sadio took a deep breath."
Jurgen Klopp wasn't impressed with some of Atletico Madrid's tactics last night 😳 pic.twitter.com/iCU4XAfhj2
— GOAL (@goal) February 19, 2020
According to reports from ESPN, Atletico Madrid players are infuriated at such claims from the Liverpool boss as they feel this is a case of sour grapes.
The Rojiblancos camp feel that the Liverpool boss is frustrated with the result and is trying to deflect the attention elsewhere.
The reigning European champions are, however, still confident that they can turn it around at Anfield in the second leg.
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