'Insane, worldie, perfect' - Jürgen Klopp on Alisson's winning goal
‘Insane, a worldie, perfect,’ was how Jürgen Klopp described Alisson Becker’s incredible last-minute winner against West Bromwich Albion.
The Liverpool goalkeeper snatched three precious points in the race for Champions League qualification when, with the score 1-1 in the 95th minute of Sunday’s Premier League game, he headed Trent Alexander-Arnold’s corner into the net.
Alisson is the first ‘keeper ever to score a goal in 129 years of club history – and in his reflections on an unforgettable match, Klopp felt the Brazilian was the ideal man in the ideal moment.
Read the manager’s post-match press conference from The Hawthorns, where Mohamed Salah had cancelled out Hal Robson-Kanu’s opener earlier in the afternoon, below…
On whether the momentum is with Liverpool in the race for Champions League qualification…
I am not sure, I’m not sure. I don’t think we have to think too much about that. We knew today that it will be a tough one. We played against a team who went through a lot, a lot of pressure situations and in the end they couldn’t make it. Today, free of pressure, but with a really good attitude, they gave us a proper fight. With then being 1-0 down, that obviously makes life not easier. In a game where you have constantly the ball pretty much and each time you don’t have the ball it’s kind of a set-piece, the next ball is a set-piece, how can you defend set-pieces 1,000 per cent against a team like West Brom? It’s just tricky. So it was a tough job to do.
So I didn’t think a second about momentum, I wanted us just to be full of desire and calm anyway. And that’s what I saw, because we had to play football, you cannot really force it, like with shots from 35, 40 yards or something like that. You have to play through, we had to play the most difficult spaces between their lines. So we created chances but didn’t use them. And we needed a corner in the last second and our goalie to score off it. What a goal, what a worldie. Unbelievable goal. The technique, absolutely insane. Couldn’t have hit a better person, couldn’t have been a better moment. Just perfect for today. We didn’t have a lot of these moments in the season, so I don’t think we should take it for granted now just because we had it once. We have to keep going.
On whether it was his decision for Alisson to go up for the corner…
No, I looked at the corner. I don’t exactly know. I saw Ali starting [to go up]. My part of the goal is that I didn’t shout, ‘Stay back!’ I just let him run. The last minute of the game, nobody has to ask usually a ‘keeper for going in the opposite box when you have to win, which we obviously had to. He went there and what a goal! It was incredible. Wow. We saw it now already 10 times back in the dressing room. It’s absolutely incredible. If Olivier Giroud scores a goal like this everybody says it’s a world-class goal. When Alisson is doing it, we have to say the same.
On if luck is now going the Reds’ way after the decision to award a free-kick in the build-up to their first goal…
Oh, I didn’t feel for a second that anything was going in our direction. I saw one team football playing all the time and one team getting all the free-kicks. So when we got one free-kick today and it was therefore maybe not right, I think I’m absolutely fine with that. How I said, I don’t know if things turn or not, we just want to, have to keep going. We know how difficult Turf Moor will be with supporters. That’s really one of the toughest places you can go to, so we have to be ready.
On the way Alisson’s teammates and the staff reacted to his goal…
The way that his teammates showed today how much they like him is the best description. He is a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful person and [he is] funny, smart, thoughtful, intense in moments. He is just a great guy and it couldn’t have been for a better person to have such a special moment after all that he went through. I am really, really happy for him.
On whether Diogo Jota could miss the Euros and whether Ozan Kabak will return before the end of the season…
Diogo, I don’t know actually. As I said, it is not too serious but as always, you have to wait [to see] how it develops, how it heals. It is a little bone in the foot and we have to see. I think he will now be in a boot for two weeks or so and when he gets out of the boot then the doctors will check how it developed, how far the progress is, so I don’t know that but of course, it is not a top moment. Ozan, no. No for the long-term [injuries], Ozan isn’t in the long-term [injuries] but nobody is coming back, I think.
On whether Alisson scores regularly in training…
No, I said to John Achterberg that when I go into the press conference I will tell everybody that finally it paid off because he is doing that four times a week! Unfortunately, it’s not true! It must have been in the long-term memory of his from when he was an outfield player as a kid. I never saw him doing something like this. I am quite happy he doesn’t use the head too often and uses his hands. A perfect moment and if he is never doing it again, I’m fine – it is an absolutely perfect moment.