November 10, (THEWILL) – Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp admitted his side “deserved to lose” their Europa League clash against Toulouse on Thursday night, even though he was “100 percent” certain Jarell Quansah’s disallowed late equaliser should have stood.
The Reds struggled for intensity against the 14th-placed team in France this season. Joe Gomez hit the crossbar early on, but Toulouse were dominant for most of the game after the first 25 minutes, going 2-0 ahead either side of half-time courtesy of poor Liverpool defending.
Liverpool pulled one back against the run of play but were quickly two behind again when Toulouse sub Frank Magri made it 3-1. Diogo Jota reduced the deficit late on before Quansah thought he had equalised deep into stoppage time, only for it to be ruled out for an apparent earlier handball by Alexis Mac Allister.
In post-match comments, Klopp revealed that he was certain the goal should have stood but was more concerned by Liverpool’s sloppy overall display. “We scored a third one…I think it’s a goal, 100 percent,” he said. However, he later added: “It was well deserved to lose because [Toulouse] won pretty much all the decisive challenges [and] battles.”
With three goals conceded, Klopp accepted that “defending-wise it was just not good enough”. He conceded only a flattering point would have come from Quansah’s disallowed effort.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.