Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp feels that Napoli shouldn’t have been awarded the penalty which saw them taking the lead last night.
The Reds’ Champions League defense started with a 2-0 defeat to Carlo Ancelotti’s side at the Stadio San Paolo. The Gli Azzurri were awarded a penalty after Andy Robertson appeared to have brought down Jose Callejon. Dries Mertens scored from the spot to open the scoring for Napoli before Fernando Llorente added a second in the dying moments of the match.
SEE MORE: Liverpool pick up unwanted Champions League tag as first team to do this in 25 years
Following the game, Klopp said that Liverpool didn’t deserve to concede the penalty because Callejon jumped before any contact was made with Robertson. As quoted by Sky Sports, the Reds manager said: “For me it’s clear and obvious, no penalty, because Callejon jumps before he has any contact. But we cannot change that so we have to be critical with ourselves. We did well in a lot of moments, we played a lot of good football but we didn’t finish off.
“In the second half we had this wild game, we were running, they were running. They’ve killed everybody on the pitch, started controlling again and then we’ve conceded a penalty. Of course that doesn’t help and I’ve seen it now, I don’t think that’s a penalty.”
Yesterday, Liverpool did put up a much better performance than last season’s fixture in Naples. They dominated in possession and had more shots on goal than Napoli did. However, the attackers weren’t very clinical up front as they normally are.
Last night marked the first time since 2002 that Liverpool lost their Champions League opener. The reigning champions’ next fixture is against Red Bull Salzburg who thrashed Genk 6-2 last night. Before meeting the Austrian club, Liverpool play three matches, the first of which is against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.
