Matchday 23: Liverpool 1-1 Chelsea
Liverpool came from behind to tie an important match they could not lose. After three straight win, Liverpool was fearing the worse against the League leaders Chelsea. A direct free-kick from David Luiz set the visitors but Liverpool was resilient and did not let go. The Reds tied the game at the hour mark and keeper Mignolet saved a penalty from Diego Costa. A somewhat deserved result for both teams and Chelsea still manage a large 10 point margin to the second ranked team Tottenham.
Liverpool, coach Klopp comments on the fighting spirit:
“I am happy about the performance. I think it was obvious we played against an outstanding strong, outstanding experienced side. I thought we did well, from the first second we were in the game and were aggressive. It felt a little bit to me tonight like [in the] red shirt, we played with readiness, passion, will, greed against experience and coolness, and that’s quite difficult.
They scored an outstanding goal. I know after not talking about the goalkeeper for one month probably you are ready to talk about him again, [but] I thought it was really smart [from Luiz], it was really clever and really well done so we have to respect this. Yes of course, if he [Mignolet] stands next to the post it’s an easy save and all the other situations would have been difficult. 1-0 – and that’s of course, it’s exactly what Chelsea want, because they felt there was a lot of pressure here today [against a] good opponent and then you can score a goal like this, usually something happens in your opponent, in this case with Liverpool, but we were still in the game after that.
Let’s stay cool and have a little bit of fun when you think about Liverpool and look ahead and, yes nothing has been decided until now, but we have a chance. So, go for it and then if not, then it’s 14 games, 42 points – go for it. There’s a lot to get for us and we will see where it ends.”
Chelsea coach, Conte is pleased with the point:
“I am pleased with the performance of my players. It’s not an easy moment to play Liverpool after three defeats. It’s not easy to play in this atmosphere at Anfield too and for this reason I am proud of my players for the personality they showed me tonight. This game was incredible, very tough, great intensity, a lot of pressure from both sides, and for this reason there were a lot of mistakes.
When there are these type of games with high intensity it’s very difficult to see the mistakes and to try to make the correction, but I think we played a really good game. It wasn’t easy to play with the same intensity as Liverpool, and to also have different chances to win the game. We must be pleased.
‘It’s a good point for sure. When you have a great chance, a penalty on 76 minutes, for sure you think you could win and take three points. Diego kicked very well and Mignolet made a great save. Also, after this situation, we had two chances to score the second goal but it didn’t happen. Now it’s important to recover very well because we used a lot of energy.”
