Jurgen Klopp Says 'Everybody Agrees' Liverpool Denied Penalty vs. Leicester City
Jurgen Klopp is convinced Liverpool were denied a clear penalty during Wednesday's 1-1 draw with Leicester City at Anfield. The stalemate meant the Reds could only stretch their lead over Manchester City at the top of the Premier League to five points, and Klopp believes referee Martin Atkinson got key decisions wrong.
One of them involved not awarding a spot-kick when Foxes defender Ricardo Pereira felled Naby Keita in the box in the 57th minute. The other saw Atkinson only hand out a yellow card to Harry Maguire, who went on to net Leicester's equaliser in first-half stoppage time, after the centre-back fouled Sadio Mane in an incident Klopp described as a "100 per cent (goalscoring) chance."
Klopp discussed both moments from a frustrating night, per Chris Bascombe of the Daily Telegraph. First, he said of the penalty claim Atkinson rejected:
"Everyone agrees it could and should have been a penalty. I do not know why it was not a penalty. I don't know what he saw. I think he had the best position. There was no blood involved but it was a penalty.
"Very often I stand here when we got a penalty and have to defend it. What do you need? This time we didn't get it so I hope everybody is happy, that we didn't get that penalty so now we can carry on."
Klopp was even more pointed in his comments about the Maguire incident, questioning how intelligent it was for the defender to even attempt a challenge. The Reds chief was in no doubt about what the foul cost his side:
"A situation where there is a goalscoring chance that tells the ref he has to give a red card. Because not only is Sadio through, but I am pretty sure Mo was on the other side which gives you two against one against Schmeichel."
It won't be any consolation to Klopp that Maguire admitted after the match he had caught the Liverpool forward.
Speaking to BT Sport (h/t Tom Marshall-Bailey of the Liverpool Echo), Maguire still felt Atkinson had been correct to resist the possibility to send him off: "I did catch him—I stood on the back of his heel, to be fair to him. I didn't really mean to bring him down, so I thought it was the right decision."
Klopp's bitterness is understandable since both decisions appeared to go against the team chasing a first top-flight domestic title since 1990. While it's easy to label the manager's irritated post-match comments as sour grapes on a night when Liverpool were fancied to go seven points clear, there's no denying the damage decisions of this type can do.
Title races are often decided on fine margins, particularly those as tightly contested as this season's scrap for the big prize. Liverpool are competing against champions City, who took last season's title with a record 100 points and have still been good enough to score the most goals in the division, 63, this campaign.
Klopp's men also can't ignore Tottenham Hotspur, who made the most of dropped points by those above them by beating Watford 2-1 at Wembley Stadium on Wednesday night. The result has taken the Lilywhites within seven points of top spot.
Even so, the league crown still seems like Liverpool's to lose with only 14 games left to play. Meaning the Anfield club's rivals will have little sympathy for what happened against the Foxes.
Some might argue Liverpool didn't do enough to merit all three points, regardless of the standard of refereeing. It's fair to say the Reds were far from their usual fluent and incisive selves in the final third, as players such as Xherdan Shaqiri and Roberto Firmino struggled to influence proceedings.
Others may simply point to the old adage of things evening out over the course of a campaign. Like any other team, Liverpool have also benefited from some decisions this season, with star forward Mohamed Salah winning more than one disputed penalty.
Fortune also favoured the Reds when substitute Divock Origi scored a bizarre 96th-minute winner to beat Everton in a Merseyside derby back in December.
If fate has swung the other way, Klopp will hope all the balancing out was done against Leicester. If not, Liverpool supporters may well look back on Atkinson's performance as the night when their team's supposed grip on the title began to fatally loosen.
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