Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp says he “really hated” the moment he had to tell Sadio Mane that his night was over at half-time in the home dressing room, despite the Reds’ 2-0 victory over Atletico Madrid 2-0 that booked their place in the Champions League knockout stages. The jet-heeled forward was having one of his best games of the season as he tormented the Atletico defence but Klopp was not prepared to risk him picking up a second yellow card after the interval with the game virtually won.
“I really hated the moment where I had to take off Sadio because Sadio played an incredible game,” he told BT Sport.
“My worry was any kind of challenge in the air, you never know what happens there with an arm and stuff like this.
“If one of them goes down and does three rolls over, Sadio is off and that would have been the wrong thing.
“In the end, I didn’t like it but in the end we had to do it.”
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Brazilian defender Felipe was shown a straight red card after he stopped Mane on the break, although he did continuously ignore the referee Danny Makkelie, who asked him to come and talk.
Liverpool thought they made it 3-0 after the break when Jota collected Joel Matip’s pass and finished cooly but he was ruled offside.
Luis Suarez also looked to have pulled one back for the Spaniard but Atletico were also denied their own goal by VAR.
Overall, it was a great night for Liverpool who are now guaranteed to finish top of the group of death with two games to spare.
However, there was a sour note as Roberto Firmino hobbled off with a muscle injury. The Reds will now wait to carry out tests on their forward tomorrow.
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Klopp has also highlighted the financial significance of winning matches in Europe, hinting that the Reds will not just pack up for the final two group matches against Porto and AC Milan respectively.
“You earn a lot of money if you win Champions League games,” he added.
“Not me personally but for the club it’s important so that’s what we will do.
“But of course, the first thing we wanted to do was get through the group.
“Getting through the group with 12 points after four match days is absolutely insane to be honest.
“One is a home game against Porto and then we go to Milan, I haven’t been there, it’s a historical one but we will show up there too.”
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