The controversial decision that lead to Christian Beneteke converting a late penalty may be dominating the post match chatter as a shorthanded Liverpool came from behind to beat an unlucky Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park yesterday, but Reds defender Dejan Lovren and manager Jurgen Klopp saw more than just referee Andre Marriner making a big call at an important time.
“It was an incredible performance from all of us, especially after the red card,” the Croatian centreback told Sky Sports News. “We stepped up and showed our skills and character. I think it was a deserved win. After the game against Manchester City, this is [another] lift for every one of us. We will have a tough game again on Thursday in the Europa League,” he continued, looking towards the meeting with Manchester United later this week. “It’s a good thing for our confidence and all of the supporters. We need to continue like that.”
Liverpool looked to be in a serious predicament when Joe Ledley broke the deadlock and James Milner was dismissed in quick-fire succession early in the second half, but some clever tweaks from the bench and a bit of luck on the part of the visitors saw Roberto Firmino level proceedings with just under a quarter of the match left to play before Benteke’s cool finish from the spot snatched an unlikely win in the dying seconds.
“It’s not the biggest problem, we were one man down and 1-0 behind but it’s not a problem for the offensive things because you don’t need 11 players for offensive play,” said Klopp. “I think [across] the whole 90 minutes we deserved the luck but in the situation around [the equaliser], we needed a bit of luck to force this mistake and could use it to score a goal,” continued the Reds boss with a mischievous grin. “To be honest, I think nobody really thought that we would try to make another goal, but Christian had another idea,” he added, sounding well pleased with the Belgian. “He took the ball, went into the box, and it was a challenge, it was a foul, it was a penalty and he took the chance for us. It was really good.”
