Premier League: against Tottenham, Klopp attacked the referees in “the blow of anger”

Liverpool coach Jürgen Klopp, who attacked the referees in the match against Tottenham (4-3) on the 34th day of the Premier League, spoke on Tuesday of "the emotion" and the "anger of the moment" to justify his outburst.

As Diogo Jota handed the victory to the wire for Liverpool at home last Sunday, Klopp ran along the touchline to celebrate in front of the match's fourth referee, before being shown a yellow card by the referee Paul Tierney. "This situation should never have happened," Klopp said at a press conference on Tuesday. “It was under the influence of emotion, of anger at this moment”, he explained, while adding that he “did not say anything bad” and did not wish “to approach the fourth referee”.

The English Football Association (FA) has also opened an investigation into the comments made by the Reds coach to Paul Tierney. Still according to the German technician, the main referee, when giving him a yellow card, nevertheless told him that it was worth "a red card".

“After the match I tried to calm down but I didn't behave properly. I said on television: what he told me was not correct. I opened the box that I did not want to open,” he regretted. Klopp said after the encounter that he did not know what the referee 'had against' Liverpool. “The referees are angry at what I said. I did a lot of things that day but I didn't lie,” he said on Tuesday, expecting to be punished. "They think I questioned their integrity, which I don't do when I'm sitting here calmly."

After the match against Spurs, the PGMOL, the body responsible for professional refereeing in England, published a press release in which it affirmed that Paul Tierney "acted in a professional manner throughout the match, in particular when penalizing the 'coach of Liverpool', thus refuting all the charges brought against him.