Liverpool coach, Jürgen Klopp, praised the performance of the Manchester City star, the Algerian international, Riyad Mahrez, after the latter scored a beautiful goal against the “Reds”, according to the website “.Manchester Evening“Athlete.
Manchester City had defeated Liverpool, the English League Cup holders, 3-2, in an exciting match, as it advanced three times and held firm in the last minutes to qualify for the quarter-finals.
Defender Nathan Ake scored the winning goal with a header in the 58th minute, after Mohamed Salah equalized for Liverpool one minute after Riyad Mahrez’s goal, which put City ahead at the start of the second half.
Erling Haaland had scored his 24th goal this season in all competitions to put City ahead in the tenth minute at the Etihad Stadium, but Liverpool responded in the 20th minute when Fabio Carvalho hit the net from James Milner’s pass.
Klopp indicated that he had to change his formation in the match against the “Citizens” and that the players needed time to adapt together, stressing that the “Reds” had real problems at the beginning of the match.
Klopp also provided updates on his injured players, including James Milner, who left the game with an injury.
Klopp said in statements after the match: “We played with a formation we haven’t played in for a long time, and we had to change a lot from almost our last training session, you can see that, we needed time to adapt.”
He continued, “The goals we conceded were completely unnecessary, we had good periods and we could have scored more goals as well, but in the end we have to live with the result we got.”
And about Mahrez’s goal against his team, Klopp said: “It is a world-class goal, caused by the positioning of Gundogan and De Bruyne alongside Palmer, and Mahrez caused us some problems early in the match.”
Objecting to the arbitration, Klopp said: “By the way, Haaland’s first opportunity at the start of the match, the first half, was offside, right? .. This gives the game direction, it was offside, but the referee did not blow his whistle and the assistant referee did not raise his flag.”
Klopp criticized the failure to use the “mouse” video assistant referee technology in this tournament, saying: “This technology exists, why don’t we use it?”