I Didn’t Hear The Free Kick Whistle – Simon Mignolet

Liverpool goalkeeper Simon Mignolet said he “didn’t hear the whistle” to restart play before David Luiz scored from a free kick to give Chelsea the lead in Tuesday’s 1-1 draw.

Mignolet was still positioning his wall when Luiz ran up to quickly take the free kick that went in off the near post, but the keeper gave credit to his opponent.

“I didn’t hear the whistle, then he hit it earlier,” Mignolet told BT Sport. “It was a good free kick in the end but obviously you have to give yourself a chance to save it but that didn’t happen.”

Luiz, though, said he was happy to take advantage of Mignolet’s confusion.

“Sometimes you need to try to surprise,” Luiz said. “It is not the best moment to try free kicks because of my knee. I have not been training too much and with free kicks you need to train everyday.

“But sometimes you need to feel the game and take the opportunity and I’m happy.”#

Mignolet stepped up to save Diego Costa’s 77th-minute penalty, securing a point, but he said he wasn’t satisfied with the result.

“Straight after the game, the feeling is that we are disappointed,” he said. “And if you do that against Chelsea, who are leading the Premier League, getting a lot of points and playing good football, then it shows how hungry we are and I think we deserved the three points.

“We can focus on the Premier League. We have big challenges coming up but if we play like we did today then definitely pick up more points and we would like to do that.

“I think we showed that we are a very good side and set this as a benchmark.”