I took Salah out to protect him from injury: Klopp
Liverpool's manager Juergen Klopp refused to dwell on the two late goals they conceded in a 5-2 win over AS Roma in their Champions League semi-final, first leg yesterday morning (Singapore time), saying his team had been "perfect" for 80 minutes.
"Of course, we would have been more happy with 5-0 or 5-1, but 5-2 is a fantastic result. We go there and try again," said the German coach.
"The boys played a brilliant game over a very long period. Even the last minutes when we conceded.
"We made one mistake and the ref made one mistake (awarding a penalty) and that was two goals for them.
"We have to work again in Rome, that is no problem... Roma would have tried everything anyway."
Salah scored two superbly taken goals to take his season tally in all competitions to 43 and his Champions League total to 10 for the season - a club record for a Liverpool player in a single European campaign.
Klopp did not regret taking Salah off in the 75th minute with Liverpool 5-0 ahead, saying he wanted to protect the PFA Player of the Year from possible injury.
"If anyone wants to say it is my mistake we concede the two goals because I change the striker, I have no problem with that... He was running all the time and it would not have helped us if he got an injury. - REUTERS
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