Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp admitted his side were “lucky” to leave Selhurst Park with three points as his side earned a dramatic 2-1 victory over Crystal Palace in the Premier League on Saturday.
Liverpool were second-best for much of the game and found themselves behind from a Jean-Phillipe Mateta penalty in the 57th minute. However, Palace forward Jordan Ayew was shown a second yellow card on 75 minutes and it sparked Liverpool into life, with Mohamed Salah scoring a minute later and substitute Harvey Elliott striking a superb winner in stoppage-time.
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“I am a very happy manager in this moment, and I know we were lucky as well. If you only win when you’re really good then you have no chance of being really successful, that’s just how it is,” Klopp said in his post-match news conference.
“Today was not a really good game from us. For 76 minutes, we put in a bad performance… Then they got a red card and we scored right after that — that’s all helpful. That is why I said we were lucky as well, definitely. But what we did from 76 [minutes] to 106 [minutes] was really good because as you know against 10 men you can have more problems than today. We really turned the game around; the subs were super influential.
“That’s actually the story so far of this season, the subs being impactful off the bench. If Harvey [Elliott] miss hits that ball it’s a draw, if Mo [Salah] is not there and the ball doesn’t get deflected then we lose the game. The last 15-20 minutes we deserved it, before that we deserved nothing.”
Salah’s goal on 76 minutes was his 200th for Liverpool and 150th in the Premier League, and Klopp said he awarded the forward a shirt in the dressing room after the game to commemorate the landmark.
“It’s really impressive,” Klopp added. “We carried that shirt for two weeks with us, now finally we could give it to him. That was probably the best moment to score it to be 100% honest.
“It is an incredible number for a super special player, and I don’t know how often he has saved us for a goal he has scored at the right moment. It was a pretty loud reception in the dressing room when I gave him the shirt with the ‘200’ on the back.”
Liverpool, who have now earned 37 points from 16 Premier League games this season, will round off their Europa League group stage campaign against Union St.Gilloise on Thursday before hosting rivals Manchester United at Anfield next Sunday