Jurgen Klopp has told referee Felix Brych he was “unfair” on forward Sadio Mane during Liverpool’s Champions League defeat to Real Madrid on Tuesday night.
The Reds face an uphill task in next week’s quarter-final second leg at Anfield after falling to a 3-1 defeat in Madrid.
Real’s second goal was the main highlight of the game. Marco Asensio’s goal came barely 30 seconds after Mane had been brought down by Lucas Vazquez when racing on to a ball over the top with referee Brych waving play on.
A seemingly unhappy Klopp sought out the German official after the match.
“The situation with Sadio, I have to say what the ref did tonight I don’t understand,” said the Reds boss. “For me, there was something personal.
“He dealt with situation from Sadio, which is a clear foul, like it was a dive (by Mane) or whatever.“From that moment on, whenever Sadio went down he didn’t get anything any more.“It’s just not right. That’s what I told him (the referee) after the game, that I just thought he was unfair with Sadio. That’s how it is.
Zinedine Zidane says Liverpool will "leave all they have on the pitch" when they host Real Madrid at Anfield next week.
Mohamed Salah fired in what could yet be a vital away goal, but a brace from Vinicius Junior, either side of a goal from Marco Asensio, leaves the 2019 Champions League winners needing another big performance at Anfield in the European Cup.
Klopp’s counterpart Zinedine Zidane, who was Madrid coach when they beat Liverpool 3-1 in the 2018 Champions League final, says the Reds will give their all to secure another famous turnaround at home.
"We are happy with the result but we have won nothing. We are happy with the performance and what the players have done is huge after a lot of difficulties in our season.
"There is a long road ahead and we are alive. Today is the first leg but we'll know we'll have a second leg and our idea is to think that we go into that and the result will be 0-0.
"For us, we are happy but we have another complicated game for the second leg.
"These two sides are quite offensive and we knew we could hurt them from that aspect, so we prepared properly.
"What we did quite well was defend properly with the three in the middle and we know if we defend properly we will get chances in the attack and that is what happened.
"The first goal was quite beautiful with a wonderful pass from Toni [Kroos]."
The Reds leave themselves with it all to do in the return game on April 14 at Anfield.