JUrgen Klopp kept clapping his hands. But it wasn’t applause, it was encouragement. Because what Klopp had just seen, he couldn’t like at all. At least not as a Liverpool manager. As a football lover, Klopp must have enjoyed Lautaro Martínez’s dream goal. The Inter Milan striker fired the ball into the Liverpool goal with his right foot from the left in a perfect arc. The Argentine hit the ball in such a way that it turned away from goalkeeper Alisson Becker, but then hit the corner and the net. It doesn’t get any better. That was in minute 61.
It doesn’t get any worse than that. That’s what it said in the 63rd minute. Because when Inter’s hopes of equalizing the 0:2 from the first leg of the round of 16 in the Champions League had just grown, referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz came into play. It’s not that he hadn’t already completely controlled the game, but now the Spaniard, who is known as a theatrical actor, intervened decisively and wrongly. He sent off Inter’s Alexis Sánchez. He had quite rightly seen the yellow card in the first half when he hit the former Munich Thiago with the studs on the knee.
Now he got his second yellow card of the game, which led to his being sent off, for a move in which he tipped the ball away from opponent Fabinho and then hit the Liverpool player while sliding. played ball? foul played? Lahoz quickly made up his mind and let Inter, which had just grown almost at eye level, shrink again. And because he had the red card in his hand anyway, the referee also showed it to the protesting assistant coach Massimiliano Farris on the bench.
“It was a bit slapstick”
With a majority, Liverpool took complete control of Anfield, did not hit the goal despite good chances, but were no longer in danger. Like FC Bayern after their 7-1 win against Salzburg in the parallel game, the English are in the quarter-finals, which will be drawn on March 18 and played from April 5 onwards. “The only thing that interests me is that we progressed,” said Klopp. It didn’t bother the German coach that his team lost at home for the first time in almost a year, against Fulham in the English league.
“The art of football is to lose the right games,” said Klopp after Liverpool had won all seven of their previous Champions League games this season. “I still hate to lose,” Klopp continued. “But if we could afford to lose a game, it’s this one, because the main goal of this competition is to get through.” So the quarter-finals shouldn’t be the end of the game. Last year, the end came after a 0-0 and 1-3 draw against Real Madrid.
The lack of chances was still a bit on the stomach for the relieved Klopp late in the evening in Liverpool. “It’s a big ‘if’, but if we had taken our chances – it was a bit slapstick how we missed the chances – we could still have won the game in the end.” But Joel Matip headed the ball to the Latte (31′), Mohamed Salah hit the post twice (52′ and 76′), and Luiz Diaz failed because Arturo Vidal saved (90’+2′). Klopp shouldn’t worry too much though: Liverpool have already scored 109 goals in 43 games this season.
Inter took the sporty end despite the unfortunate circumstances. “After ten years we are back in the round of 16 of the Champions League,” said coach Simone Inzaghi. We drew the strongest team in Europe, but made the duel even.” It was a great game. “The lads did very well, the problem was the first leg.” Inzaghi didn’t judge the dismissal, but was certain that he had made a significant contribution to the outcome of the duel. “Liverpool seemed to have suffered a major setback – then Sanchez was sent off.”
