Jurgen Klopp dismissed claims that Darwin Nunez’s late winner should not have stood as Liverpool extended their lead at the top of the Premier League table.
Nunez made a return from injury to come off the bench and earn the Reds a dramatic 1-0 victory over Nottingham Forest at the City Ground. The Uruguay striker bagged in the ninth minute of stoppage-time as Liverpool moved four points clear in the title race.
However, Forest were left incensed by referee Paul Tierney. Play had stopped beforehand for a head injury Liverpool defender Ibrahima Konate suffered. While the home ground were in possession, the ball was dropped back to visiting goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher. Nunez bagged one minute and 50 seconds later, which sent the travelling Kopites into ecstasy and left the home side fuming.
Forest coach Steven Reid was given a red card at full-time while Nuno Espirito Santo refused to comment on the decision. Meanwhile, ex-Premier League official Mark Clattenburg – who served as a referee analyst for Forest – rued the decision. He told BBC 5 Live: “[Forest] should have had the ball back.
“If the referee stops the game, he has to give the ball back to the team in possession. That was Forest. “When [the ball was] is given to the keeper, with Liverpool scoring afterwards, you can see why [Forest] are aggrieved.
“I haven’t spoken to the referee – I’ll leave that to the club. I went to go into the referee’s dressing room [after the game] but he wouldn’t allow it.”
However, Klopp saw no issue with the decision as a similar incident happened in the first half. The Liverpool manager said: “It happened exactly the same in the first half, didn’t it? It was exactly the same, just the other way around, right? What would you say about that? I expected it exactly to happen like that because it happened in the first half like that. If it wouldn’t have happened in the first half, I would have asked a question as well.
“But I would now assume that’s the rule. I don’t know to be 100 per cent sure because it happened twice and twice it got handled exactly the same. So, I don’t really see the reason for the discussions because that’s it and I don’t know how many passes we had to play to arrive there and score the goal. But I understand 100 per cent the excitement and the anger and stuff like this of Nottingham, of course. They fight for everything and I understand that, but I think with the particular situation where it was twice the same then I would say that’s consistent.”
