JURGEN KLOPP blasted referee Felix Brych’s performance in the Champions League quarter-final and accused him of making ‘personal’ decisions against Sadio Mane.
The Liverpool boss, 53, saw his side slump to a 3-1 defeat away at Real Madrid in the first leg on Tuesday night.
But he came out firing at the officials, unhappy with a series of decisions that went against the reigning Premier League champions.
One particular incident saw Mane brought down by last-man Lucas Vazquez.
But play was allowed to continue and within 27 seconds Marco Asensio had made it 2-0 by capitalising on Trent Alexander-Arnold’s error.
And to make matters worse, Klopp’s German compatriot Brych showed Mane a yellow card three minutes later for tripping Vazquez.
Klopp fumed: “The situation with Sadio – what the ref did tonight I don’t understand.
“For me that was something personal because he dealt with the situation with Sadio, which was a clear foul, like he was a diver or whatever.
“From that moment on whenever Sadio went down he didn’t get anything. That is not right.
“That is what I told him after the game, that I thought he was unfair with Sadio.
FREE BETS: GET OVER £2,000 IN SIGN UP OFFERS HERE
“That doesn’t change anything at all. He didn’t lose the game.
“We were not good enough to get a better result, but in these moments you need just an ‘OK’ ref. That would have been enough.”
Brych then waved away more Liverpool appeals late on when Mane appeared to be fouled on the edge of the Real box to complete a miserable night for the Reds.
Vinicius Junior’s double either side of the Asensio finish secured a comfortable win for the hosts.
Mo Salah did get an away goal but it is Real Madrid who hold the advantage before the second leg at an empty Anfield.
Klopp added: “Most importantly, we didn’t deserve to win tonight. We didn’t play good enough for that.
I don’t know if we can go through but we will give it a proper try
Jurgen Klopp
“We conceded the first goal and served the second on a plate but that was not the real problem of the game.
“We scored our goal and that is ‘the’ positive of the night. Did we deserve more than 3-1? I’m not sure.
“Of course, it is completely different [without fans for second leg]. If you want to have some emotional memories you watch the Barcelona game back and 80 per cent of it is the atmosphere in the stadium.
“We had supporters then and I don’t know if we can do it but we will give it a proper try.
“It must be a really tricky task for Real Madrid at Anfield with or without supporters.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
