Jurgen Klopp hails Liverpool's 'nearly perfect' display in Atletico Madrid win
By Sean Walsh
Jurgen Klopp was seriously impressed with the performance his Liverpool side put in during their 2-0 win against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League.
First half goals from Diogo Jota and Sadio Mane saw the Reds cruise into a two-goal lead, before Felipe was sent off for the visitors and Liverpool were able to kill the game with ease.
Klopp told BT Sport afterwards that he understands why fans would be annoyed that his side didn't thrash Atletico after the sending off, but stressed that they played a 'nearly perfect' game anyway.
"In the second half [after the red card] it was how it was," Klopp said. "We have an incredible schedule [coming up] and even with controlling the game, we lost a player to injury - Bobby Firmino.
"That's what we have to do. I can imagine people want to see more goals but we still created chances, we scored a goal which was disallowed. We had incredible chances, like 'wow, how did we miss them'.
"I think the game was nearly perfect. We scored the goals at the right moments. They were much more on the front foot than in the reverse game. We defended that well. Two incredible balls from Trent [Alexander-Arnold] and two fantastic finishes."
"And then the red card...we don't like that, we don't want to play against ten men. But then you have to be careful. They scored their goal, it was given as offside. In the end, it's 2-0, a great night."
Klopp said pre-game that Liverpool's best chance of winning was to not get sucked into Atletico's game plan, and is happy that his side were able to beat them twice and secure qualification to the knockout stages with two matches of the group stage to spare.
"We would have no chance [fighting Atletico's fights like they do]. Everybody is different in life. You have to use your own skillset. We have to neutralise their skillset. We have to play our football," he added.
"When I saw the group [stage draw], I didn't expect us to be through after four games. But the boys did it and it's well deserved."