Yesterday, Premier League giants Liverpool visited Real Madrid for the first leg of their highly-anticipated UEFA Champions League quarterfinal clash. Unfortunately, a horrific performance from the Reds was what fans were treated to, with the Merseyside giants losing 3-1 at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano.
It was a performance full of errors, with Trent Alexander-Arnold committing an atrocious blunder for Los Blancos' second goal. Poor defending saw Vinicius Jr. get in between the English right-back and Nate Phillips to latch onto an exquisite Toni Kroos pass before breaking the deadlock. Within 10 minutes, Asensio doubled the lead before Zidane's Brazilian starlet completing his brace just over the hour mark.
Mohamed Salah grabbed the one and only away goal and while Jurgen Klopp hailed this as a "lifeline", it did little to impress the German boss. Speaking on the performance, he admitted his side did nothing to stake their claim on a semi-final spot, saying (as per the Daily Mail): "If we want to go to the semi-finals we have to earn the right to do so and we didn't do that, especially in the first half.
"The only good thing I can say about the game, apart from the goal, is that it is only the first half of the leg. We just didn't play good enough football tonight to cause Real Madrid more problems.
"I thought it would have been possible but we have to show it in the next game. We made it too easy for them."
However, Liverpool's performance wasn't the only thing that sparked a livid reaction from Klopp. Right as the half-time whistle was blown, the former Dortmund boss was caught on camera in a heated conversation with the referee as the pair walked towards the tunnel. As per Sky Sports Germany, the 53-year-old said "That's bad! Just unfair!" to which match official Felix Brych replied: "What you're doing now is unfair, too."
Speaking after the final whistle, Klopp went public with his frustrations with Brych, arguing that he let Real Madrid get away with many fouls on Sadio Mane. The manager went on to pin-point one incident in the build-up to Asensio's goal where the Senegalese ace, who was the last man, appeared to be brought down by Lucas Vazquez near Los Blancos' penalty box. The whistle was not blown and the home side thus regained possession only to go two-nil up 27 seconds later.
"The situation with Sadio, I'm not sure what the ref did tonight," a Klopp confessed. "It seemed like it was sort of personal.
"I told him after the game, I just thought he was unfair with Sadio. He didn't lose us the game but you need just an OK ref."
Liverpool now have an uphill battle to overcome. Whether they can overturn a 3-1 deficit in the return leg remains unclear but it should be noted that the Reds have come back from a worse disadvantage at Anfield.
