“Bournemouth deserved to beat Liverpool”

Klopp: “Bournemouth deserved to beat Liverpool”

Liverpool were defeated 1-0 at Bournemouth

Jurgen Klopp admitted that Bournemouth deserved their 1-0 win against Liverpool after the Reds missed a chance to move into the top four of the Premier League.

Philip Billing’s first half effort was enough to defeat the Merseyside side at the Vitality Stadium, with three points taking the Cherries out of the relegation zone.

Mohamed Salah, fresh off a brace in last Sunday’s 7-0 rout of Manchester United that saw the Egyptian international become Liverpool’s all-time top scorer in the Premier League, missed a second-half penalty to leave visitors licking their wounds.

Klopp believes that could have been the turning point in the game, although he felt that Bournemouth, who scared leaders Arsenal last time out, were well behind a win.

“The last penalty we took in the league was a long time ago and it’s completely hypothetical, but if we scored there the game could change,” he told BT Sport.

“It doesn’t improve performance, but at least it could change the result. He scores goals, he scores a lot of goals, but he missed the penalty, that’s life.”

“It was clear from the first second we came here, Bournemouth are fighting to stay in the league, they’re a wonderful club, a wonderful city, they want to stay and they’re doing very well.”

“The results were not going in the right direction in the last few months, but the performances look different, so they deserve the three points today, that’s all.”

Bournemouth’s Adam Smith, who saw the penalty call go against him for handball, felt justice was done for Salah’s miss and revealed that even some of the Liverpool players were confused by the penalty.

“Even some of the Liverpool guys said it was a bit difficult,” he said.

“I was jumping, I couldn’t see the ball, I don’t know how I wanted to stop that. I jumped on my hands, I think my arms were down, so maybe it was a bit of justice that got away from them.”