Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp questioned the source of Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis’ fury after his side’s last-gasp 1-0 win at the City Ground on Saturday. The Reds continued their Premier League title charge through Darwin Nunez’s 99th-minute header, sparking incredible scenes at full-time.
Liverpool looked tired and out of ideas against Forest, but another moment of individual excellence fuelled Klopp’s dream of lifting four trophies in his farewell season. Nunez, a second-half substitute, produced that moment on this occasion, moving the visitors four points ahead of Manchester City at the Premier League summit.
But it didn’t come without controversy. Moments earlier, referee Paul Tierney stopped play due to a head injury to Ibrahima Konata inside Liverpool’s area. Callum Hudson-Odoi was in possession of the ball on the left as the game was stopped. However, upon the restart, Tierney allowed Liverpool to restart proceedings rather than giving the ball back to Forest.
Then came the winning goal, which left Forest ruing an array of missed chances earlier in the match and just four points above the relegation zone with a potential points deduction lingering in the background.
After full-time, Tierney was surrounded by Forest players and coaches, who were also spotted arguing with Virgil van Dijk amid the wild celebrations in the away end. Tierney showed Forest coach Steven Reid a red card for his actions before he joined Marinakis in sensationally rushing after the referee down the tunnel in search of a confrontation.
But Klopp dismissed Forest’s complaints after the match. “It happened exactly the same earlier in the game, didn’t it?” said Klopp. “Exactly the same, just the other way around. I expected it to happen exactly like that because it had happened earlier in the game like that. If it wouldn’t have happened like that, I would have asked the question as well.
“But I would now assume that’s the rule. I don’t know, to be 100% sure. But it happened twice and twice it got handled in exactly the same way. I don’t really see the reason for discussion, but that’s it. I don’t know how many passes we then had to play to arrive to score the goal.
“I understand 100% the excitement and the anger and stuff like this of Nottingham. Of course, they were fighting for everything. But in this particular situation, it happened twice and was handled twice the same. I would say that’s consistent.”
