Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has admitted the Reds were lucky to beat Crystal Palace after a “really terrible” first 76 minutes at Selhurst Park.
The Reds were second best in all positions against Roy Hodgson’s organised, well drilled side, and trailed the hosts with just over 15 minutes to go following Jean-Philippe Mateta’s successful second half penalty.
But after Jordan Ayew received red for a second booking, Liverpool immediately struck back to equalise through Mohamed Salah, before Harvey Elliott’s superb injury-time strike ensured the points would be heading back to Merseyside.
“Seventy-six minutes really bad game from us,” Klopp told TNT Sports.
“We came here and I think you could see in the beginning Crystal Palace were insecure, really low confidence levels, and I think we could have done so many things and didn’t.
“We know that happens from time to time and intense weeks, first half is sometimes a bit tricky. Obviously we wanted to do better in the second half, I felt we were a bit more in control because they only had counter attacks. That’s fine of course for them but we lost the ball for a moment and had to defend with a lot of effort.”
In his post-match press conference, Klopp added his side had experienced some good fortune:
“I am a very happy manager in this moment, and I know we were lucky as well. If you only win when you’re really good then you have no chance of being really successful, that’s just how it is.
“Then they got a red card and we scored right after that — that’s all helpful. That is why I said we were lucky as well, definitely. But what we did from 76 [minutes] to 106 [minutes] was really good because as you know against 10 men you can have more problems than today. We really turned the game around; the subs were super influential.
“That’s actually the story so far of this season, the subs being impactful off the bench. If Harvey [Elliott] miss hits that ball it’s a draw, if Mo [Salah] is not there and the ball doesn’t get deflected then we lose the game. The last 15-20 minutes we deserved it, before that we deserved nothing.”
Things could have been worse for Liverpool before their late revival, with Palace having a first half penalty award chalked off after VAR John Brooks.
He advised referee Andy Madley to penalise Will Hughes for a foul on Wataru Endo in the build-up to Virgil van Dijk bundling over Odsonne Edouard in the box – an incident Madley had initially deemed not to be a foul.
The penalty Palace were awarded also came through VAR intervention – the game stopped one minute and 45 seconds after Jarell Quansah had kicked Mateta in the penalty area when attempting to clear the ball.
