Liverpool boss Klopp bemoans throwing away three goal lead to draw with Sevilla

Liverpool boss Klopp bemoans throwing away three goal lead to draw with Sevilla

Jurgen Klopp felt Liverpool ‘stopped playing football’ as they squandered a three-goal half-time lead to throw away the chance of early Champions League qualification.

Roberto Firmino scored either side of a goal from Sadio Mane in an opening 45 minutes which could not have been better scripted for Jurgen Klopp’s visitors.

However, a worrying wobble saw them concede twice to Wissam Ben Yedder – one a twice-taken penalty – in the 15 minutes after the interval and Guido Pizarro drilled home an added-time corner.

Klopp told BT Sport: ‘It was a very good first half and not a very good second half. We stopped playing football in the second half and let them come back in the game.’

When asked if Liverpool had been complacent, Klopp said: ‘We were confident up to that first half and then we were too late in a situation, the whole formation was too late.

‘They had the free-kick and the header and the penalty. The real problem is that we stopped playing football.

‘3-0 is a wonderful result, there is nothing bad to say about that at half time, but you have to stay in the game. It was 50 minutes [when Sevilla scored their first goal], that’s a long time to try and stay in the game, you can score 10 times in that if you want.

‘We wanted to control, but we got passive, we were a little bit too deep. They fought back, big credit to them, but we had to do it differently’.

Liverpool will still win Group E if they beat Spartak Moscow at home in a fortnight, however Klopp admits it feels worse than the situation really is.

He said: ‘It feels like we lost, but we didn’t lose. There is a game to go and it is still in our own hands – but at the moment it is really bad.’

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