Klopp blasts Napoli player for diving in Liverpool defeat

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp [Courtesy]

Jurgen Klopp hit out at a blatant dive from Jose Callejon, that gave Napoli Champions League victory.

The manager was angry that the Italians were awarded a penalty in the 82 minute, and he fumed: “That was the game-changer tonight.

“I’m sorry, but when the player jumps before there is contact then it cannot be a penalty. I can say a lot of things about it, but then it would look like a bad loser.

“When you see it again, you can see it is a clear mistake. But then human beings are the ones who decide if there is a mistake - and with VAR as long as human beings decide, then there is a potential for failure.

“But we cannot do anything about it now. We have to accept it. They will find a reason to say it was the right decision, and we have to accept it.”

Klopp then asked: “Does anybody think in the room it was a penalty after looking at VAR pictures?”

Andrew Robertson fouls Jose Callejon. [Courtesy]

One journalist said yes, and he replied: “There you go, one person thinks it was a penalty, so that is why you got the VAR decision (not to overturn).”

Klopp was frustrated with his side’s inability to kill Napoli off after creating many chances during an exciting game, but he insisted he was not too worried about the performance, despite going down to another defeat here.

“It was much better than last year when we lost 1-0 - there were a lot of good moments, a lot of great counter-attacks,” he said.

“Until the penalty we defended well, very compact and that’s how you play the game against a strong side.

“We are really critical with ourselves, but it was not a bad performance, we did enough to win against Napoli.”