Liverpool ended up playing out to a 3-3 draw in disappointing fashion against Aston Villa on Monday night, after two late goals from the home side saw a dramatic end to the game.
It seemed like it was on course for a routine Liverpool win after they opened the scoring inside two minutes, courtesy of an Emiliano Martinez own goal, after which the game was then brought level by a Youri Tielemans’ strike in the 12th minute.
Efforts from Cody Gakpo and Jarell Quansah saw Liverpool take a commanding 3-1 lead before Jhon Duran’s double in the final five minutes left the match with both sides sharing the spoils.
Despite that result, Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp said he was not disappointed about the outcome of the game.
Klopp reacts to Liverpool’s late collapse
Speaking after the game, Klopp said: “I don’t feel frustrated. Maybe I should, but I just don’t. I am really happy. Look, we all saw these kind of games before; we all saw games where one team is playing for absolutely everything – qualifying for the Champions League probably means for Aston Villa everything – and one team is already fixed in the position they are in. The challenge we had today was we had to show character and attitude – and the boys showed sensational character and sensational attitude. I loved that.”
“That you can dominate the game like we did here today and against a [good] team, Unai Emery teams [are] historically sensationally well-organised. They wanted to be aggressive and they wanted to go for us and they couldn’t because we were that flexible, I liked that a lot. We scored early with some scrappy thing, I don’t know exactly how the ball went over the line – I didn’t see it properly from my position and couldn’t watch it back yet.”
“Their first chance is then the equaliser but around that we controlled it, we play well, we create, we mix it up really well, in behind, in between and I liked it a lot. We adapted to the ideas they had, we improved our protection because the counter-attacking threat was obviously there, but we adjusted to that and it was good. Two-one, nice goal, second half, again good, not a big change and they all of a sudden push us back or whatever.”
“[Then] 3-1, wonderful. Then we get a bit tired, the organisation gets a bit loose and they create too much. That’s the moment where you can change.”
In what would be an emotional fixture and Klopp’s final game as Reds manager, Liverpool will close their campaign and play at Anfield for the last time this season when the host Wolves on Sunday.
