Klopp: Liverpool paid price for Napoli penalty that should not have been given

Published on: 17 September 2019

Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp insisted that a late penalty awarded against his side in their 2-0 Champions League defeat against Napoli should not have been awarded.

The Premier League leaders fell to defeat courtesy of a Dries Mertens spotkick with 10 minutes remaining, whilst Fernando Llorente pounced on a Virgil Van Dyke error to seal the points for Napoli in stoppage time.

However, the decision to award the penalty for an Andy Robertson trip on Jose Callejon left Klopp unimpressed, with the Scot not appearing to touch his man despite the decision going to VAR.

“I think it is impossible to blow the whistle when the opponent is going down before there is any contact,” Klopp declared in his post match press conference at the Stadio San Paolo on Tuesday. “It should not have been a penalty, but we cannot change things now.

“I cannot talk about this incident as it would make me seem like a sore loser, which I am not. When you see the replays it is clear that there was no contact. VAR, however, only intervenes when there is a clear and obvious error by the referee, and unfortunately that was not the case tonight.

“It is still down to human beings to make these decisions and it is up to us to comply with the regulations.”

Defeat for the Reds sees them slip to third in Group E after the opening round of fixtures, as elsewhere in the group Red Bull Salzburg demolished Genk 6-2.

Source: forzaitalianfootball.com

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