Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp bemoans Liverpool display in Real Madrid defeat: ‘We made it too easy’

An exasperated Jurgen Klopp bemoaned his Liverpool side’s first-half display in Tuesday night’s Champions League quarter-final defeat to Real Madrid, admitting: “We made it too easy for them”.

The Reds went into the break 2-0 down thanks to goals from Vinicius Jr. and Marco Asensio, the former after Toni Kroos’ long-pass had carved the defence wide-open and the latter courtesy of a Trent Alexander-Arnold error.

Klopp’s side improved after the break, halving the deficit through Mo Salah, but Vinicius scored again to seal a 3-1 win and leave the Reds needing a major turnaround in the second leg at Anfield.

“If you want to go to the semi-final, you have to earn the right to do so,” Klopp told BT Sport. “We didn’t do that tonight, especially in the first half. The only good thing I can say, apart from the goal, is it’s only the first half of the tie.

“We just didn’t play good enough football to cause Real Madrid more problems.

“We made it too easy for them. These mistakes can happen. We didn’t deserve a lot more but that one goal and the second half was OK. It gives us a lifeline.”

Klopp had sprung a surprise in leaving Thiago Alcantara out of his starting lineup in favour of Naby Keita, but introduced the Spaniard before half-time in what appeared to be a bid to wrestle back control.

Keita was the man sacrificed and afterwards his manager confirmed the change had been purely tactical.

“It’s not a big story,” he insisted. “I don’t like it. He wasn’t the only one. It was tactical. I could have done a few more changes in that moment.”

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