London: Liverpool football club’s head coach Jurgen Klopp has questioned referee Roger East’s decision to award West Ham United a free-kick which led to his outfit’s exit from the FA Cup. It was all square at 1-1 with a penalty shootout looming on Tuesday but then East penalised Lucas Leiva which led to Dmitri Payet setting up Angelo Ogbonna for the 121st minute strike, which eventually turned out to be the winner.
Klopp, was livid and after the math termed the incident as one of the “funny decisions” from referee East. “There were a lot of situations that, on a better day, I would say are funny decisions. I would have made a few different decisions, on both sides. The only reason we were here was to go to the next round, so we are disappointed,” Klopp was quoted as saying by Skysports on Wednesday.
The German tactician was however, impressed with the way his team played. “We did a lot of things really good, we played the game in the right direction. But the first real chance went to West Ham,” he said.
“Our goal was great, a high-quality goal from (Philippe) Coutinho. Then still we did well, created chances and put up a big fight.” Klopp also spoke of the free-kick, saying that they gave away the chance without even committing a foul. “(But) they got a free-kick, without a foul, and we concede a goal. So now we go home. We created chances, but we didn’t score goals – that’s the major mistake you can make in football. But it’s better to create chances and to miss than to not create chances,” the former Borussia Dortmund coach opined. “I’m not long enough here to judge these things. If you are satisfied with the performance of the referee, write it. If not, say it.”
