I Told The Ref No One Can Beat Us – Klopp

Jurgen Klopp said he told the fourth official that “no one can beat us” after Chelsea missed a late penalty in the 1-1 draw at Liverpool on Tuesday but apologised for his behaviour.

Chelsea won a penalty when Diego Costa tangled with Joel Matip but Simon Mignolet saved the Spain international’s 77th-minute spot kick, prompting celebrations from the Liverpool boss.

Klopp said he had been “a little angry” that referee Mark Clattenburg had not stopped the play in the build-up to the penalty for what he felt was a foul on Dejan Lovren and, after the match, he revealed the content of his exchange with fourth official Neil Swarbrick in the technical area.

“Sorry, I want to say something because no one has asked me about it,” he told reporters. “It was the fourth official thing. I know this from Germany, people writing a big story from reading lips or whatever. So ‘nobody can beat us’ is what I said. That’s obviously not true! But it felt for me like this in this moment.”

Klopp accepted he was in the wrong and sought out Swarbrick to apologise.

“I said, ‘Sorry, I was a little bit excited,’ and he said: ‘No problem, I like your passion.’ That actually I’ve never heard from a fourth official before so I thought it made sense you knew about it,” he added.

Klopp also had an exchange with a Liverpool supporter who expressed his disapproval at a back-pass in the first half.

“We had it in the last game already,” he said. “If we don’t play possession football tonight then it’s ping pong.

“We played high pressure so Chelsea does it smart, played a few long balls. If we do the same we all have a stiff neck after the game.

“That means we played football and sometimes you play a back pass. I then hear in this moment: ‘Nahh, nahhh, nahhh.’ In the last game we actually turned the wrong moment and played a pass in this direction. So I say: keep your nerves please.

“I have no problem with emotion — perhaps more than I should have — but in this moment what do you want?

“It was just one [fan] by the way [that] I had eye contact with, blue jacket — maybe that explains a lot!”