Jurgen Klopp hails 98th minute as ‘perfect response’ to Newcastle time wasting

Jurgen Klopp said that Liverpool scoring in the 98th minute to beat Newcastle on Wednesday night was the ‘perfect response’ to the Magpies trying to run down the clock.

The Reds initially went behind at Anfield through a goal from Newcastle debutant Alexander Isak. But Roberto Firmino struck an equaliser, before Fabio Carvalho gave himself the ideal birthday present with a winner deep into stoppage time.

The initial period of added time had already elapsed, but more breaks in play saw stoppage time extended. Newcastle had been trying to hold on for a famous result after already taking points off Manchester City so far this season.

Klopp took a dim view of what he saw as time wasting from the visitors.

“When we scored after 90-plus-eight minutes, it’s the perfect response to that, to be honest. I’m really happy about that, but nothing else to say,” the Liverpool boss told BT Sport.

“It was the perfect moment to win this game because it was a difficult game, very passionate, aggressive defending.

“I told the boys at half-time we looked a bit desperate already, we didn’t play the extra pass. When we did that, we were really dangerous, so we had to force ourselves to keep calm a little bit more and to keep going.”

It was only a second Premier League win of the season for Liverpool after a poor start to the campaign. But it now builds on the weekend’s record-equalling 9-0 annihilation of Bournemouth, moving the Reds up to fifth place in the table ahead of Saturday’s Merseyside derby.

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