ReactionJürgen Klopp press conference: Brighton 2-2 Liverpool
Jürgen Klopp believed Liverpool's 2-2 Premier League draw with Brighton & Hove Albion to be a fair result, following what he described as an "intense" match for both teams.
Mohamed Salah netted twice for the Reds in the first half on Sunday afternoon at Amex Stadium, with his second coming from the penalty spot and overturning Simon Adingra's earlier opening goal.
The points were shared, though, as Seagulls captain Lewis Dunk scored from a Solly March free-kick with 12 minutes remaining to restore parity.
Read on for a summary of what Klopp had to say post-match in his media briefing...
On whether 2-2 was a fair result...
I think unfortunately, yes. One-nil, served on a plate, but similar situation [for us]; we forced them to make similar mistakes around our goals. Two-one up is a good result for half-time here because it is a really good team and it is difficult to defend them all the time. We wanted to do high pressing, it was the right thing to do, but in the same moment it caused the issue that they play out from time to time, we don't win the ball and then the pitch is really big and [we are] chasing back. They do that well.
I think it is clear in the second half we should have scored for 3-1, there were one or two really good opportunities but because we don't score there, we keep the game open and in this area where the free-kick happened we produced too many set-pieces, corners and especially free-kicks. I saw it back and if one of our boys touched the ball I think it was an own goal. That's what a set-piece it was. Then Dunk was there and could score from there. It was intense for both teams, so I think it's the right result in the end.
On whether he was surprised there was no red card for Pascal Gross for the foul that led to Liverpool's penalty...
I didn't realise it, to be honest. I saw it was a penalty and didn't think about red, but I heard now it is about goalscoring opportunity. If it is a goalscoring opportunity, we can ask the question here: what do you think, was it a goalscoring opportunity? Hands up. I didn't see it back... we have a few hands up, by the way! But what can I say about that? I am over it, I am too old for these kind of things. We will not change it anymore.
On his amicable touchline exchange with Roberto De Zerbi...
[It was] a mix of everything. I have to say, I cannot respect more, could not respect more, what he is doing. Honestly, I am a real supporter of it. I am a football lover and if somebody comes in and has the impact he has on football it should not be underestimated. In the moment when he got a bit outraged I used my age and tried to calm him down. I had no clue what they were talking about, I just saw if I am in a moment like this, there is a moment, or a point, [that] you never come back appears.
I think he was close to that and then I tried to calm him down. I am not sure if he needed it or not, you can ask him, but he probably told me something about the penalty, but I had no clue what he was talking about. I think he wanted a penalty. That was the situation... Brighton could have had a penalty? Then he was talking about that, but I couldn't say anything about it because I didn't remember.
On whether he was surprised at holding the lead at half-time...
Not surprised. I saw more surprising things in football. The thing is, I know how it looked and I accept that 100 per cent, some things I didn't like, but you could hear in the stadium how often we were really close to winning the ball. That's the risk they take. If you win the ball early, that's the risk we took as well, they take it to play out and we take it to try to win the ball high up. If you are then outplayed and that's the problem then it looks not cool because then you are outplayed and the pitch is really big and they do well with that.
We kept going and that's why I think really we deserved the resilience we showed there and the stubbornness we showed in that moment. OK, let's go for it, and around this we won another ball where we could have scored with so, no, I was not surprised, to be honest. I know some moments they had the upper hand, but that's it and I really think if we had scored the third one, we would have deserved to win; definitely. But I guess it was like it was.