Liverpool had to fight back to beat Crystal Palace 2-1.Jurgen Klopp admits luck was on Liverpool’s side as they beat Crystal Palace.
The Reds won 2-1 at Palace and went top of the Premier League. Arsenal’s 1-0 defeat to Aston Villa means Klopp’s men are now outright leaders.
But Liverpool were not far below the best of south London. They struggled to find their rhythm and fell behind when Jean-Philippe Mateta scored for the Eagles from the penalty spot.
But Jordan Ayew’s controversial red card reduced Palace to 10 men and Liverpool leveled after 90 seconds when Mo Salah scored his 200th goal for the club.
And in injury time, substitute Harvey Elliott scored a wonderful goal from outside the penalty area to give the away side three points. Klopp was sincere in his praise for his side’s full-time performance.
He noticed a big difference in the influence of his subordinates. The Liverpool manager said: “I’m a very lucky manager at the moment, but I know we’ve been lucky too.
If you only win really good games, you don’t have much chance of success. It wasn’t a good game for us today. A very poor performance for 76 minutes. The pace has changed.
I had no tools. I had no time. I don’t know how many times I was offside, but it was terrible. So this is always a sign that we are too passive. If someone misses the ball, someone else is already [offside].
That doesn’t make sense. I think Crystal Palace didn’t have much confidence at the start. It seemed like that. Actually, they didn’t visit us. They were good but we got close to them and lost the ball because of bad passes and bad timing.
“He could have scored a penalty in the first half. Foul given for a foul on Vata (Endo) [in preparation]. I think that was rude or at least wrong. And when they got a penalty, we got it and it looks like we need a bit of that today.
In addition, I received a red card and scored immediately. That’s all well and good, but I’m sure I got lucky. But what we did from minute 76 to minute 105 was very good.
Because we all know that if you were dealing with 10 men, you could be in a lot more trouble than you are today.”We completely changed the game. The serving was very impressive and made a huge impact.
This is the story of this season. What we bring to the bank makes a real impact. So we could have done that, but again, if Harvey fouled the ball, it would be tied.
If Mo is not in his position and the ball does not change direction, we win the game. I know this happens, but I deserved it for the last 15-20 minutes. I couldn’t find anything about it.”
