Jurgen Klopp paid tribute to a ‘world-class’ Riyad Mahrez goal after the one-time Liverpool target scored a stunner during Thursday’s 3-2 Carabao Cup defeat to Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium, speaking to the Reds website.
Oh football, how you’ve spoiled us.
Just four days after the World Cup final to end all World Cup finals, two of the finest club sides of the last decade heralded the return of domestic action with a five-goal thriller in the North West; a real Christmas cracker of a fixture chock-full of thrills, spills, a Riyad Mahrez wondergoal and the odd second-half ruckus.
“We should have defended all three goals much better,” Klopp sighed after his Liverpool missed out on a place in the quarter-finals.
“(City’s second goal) Riyad takes the ball with the first touch, it’s just world-class. And I respect that a lot. But before, on the side, we should be in better positions.”
Manchester City beat Liverpool 3-2 in the EFL Cup
Mahrez, speaking to BeIN Sports back in 2020, admitted that there was ‘interest’ from Liverpool before he swapped Leicester for Man City in a £60 million deal four-and-a-half years ago. Klopp would end up with Mo Salah instead of course. As consolations go, there are certainly worse ones.
Salah scored his 15th goal in 22 games at the Etihad; equalising just seconds after Mahrez skipped inside Andy Robertson and located the bottom corner with laser-guided precision. In the end, it was left to Nathan Ake to fire City into a quarter-final clash with Southampton. The Dutch defender converted a typically glorious Kevin de Bruyne cross just before the hour.
“A difficult start. First 15 minutes, we had problems and City played much too often through our midfield,” Klopp adds.
“Obviously, the positioning of De Bruyne and (Ilkay) Gundogan in combination with (Cole) Palmer and Mahrez ,gave us some problems. On top of the problems you have (with) Erling Haaland in the centre.
“In these situations, we were not compact enough. That’s why they could pass the ball through; that costs you confidence, conviction, stuff like this. But we found a way back in the game. We were 1-0 down, scored our goal. A wonderful goal.
“(We) had good football moments.”
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