Jurgen Klopp has said he couldn’t be more proud of his Liverpool team after they fought off near heat break in a 3-2 win over Newcastle United in the Premier League on Saturday.
Divock Origi scored the winner in the 86th minute after Newcastle had twice pegged Liverpool back. The win returns the Reds to the top of the table ahead of Manchester City’s game against Leicester City on Monday.
The German manager said that his players had fought hard against a physical team and deserved their win, and celebrated the impact of substitutes Origi and Xherdan Shaqiri, who assisted the winning goal with a free kick.
“Heart [won us the game],” Klopp told Sky Sports soon after the final whistle.
“We can talk about the game, we can talk about football, there were lots of very very good parts, but the way Newcastle played it was just difficult to deal with.
“It’s almost always [Salomon] Rondon getting the ball [in the air] and deflecting it.
“You cannot defend the long ball, you have to win the one on ones and the second balls.
“It was nearly heartbreaking because [Salah] went down and the boys that replaced him haven’t played a lot and then the winning goal was Shaqiri to Origi.
“It’s brilliant and so deserved, a tough game against a very powerful team, they’re physically stronger than us and we had to fight.
“We did that and I couldn’t be more proud.”
Klopp was asked if he was nervous at any stage, “No, I was completely calm,” he continued, saying that the head injury suffered by Mohamed Salah gave his team a chance to focus.
“We had to push the boys, they needed that, but when we had the break around [Salah’s injury] we said the only way is to play football, pass between the lines, and now we have fresh legs.
“We needed set pieces and you have to give the opposition the chance to make contact and we did that.
“We were so honest in what we did and I’m really proud of that.”
Klopp said that the victory gave his team a chance to play in a cup final next weekend when their game with Wolves could decide the league.
“Credit to Newcastle they tried everything to win their final home game.
“But we have the three points and we are through to our final.”
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