Jurgen Klopp has clarified what happened on the touchline between himself and referee Paul Tierney during Sunday's Premier League game between Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur.
When Liverpool scored the winner through Diogo Jota in the 94th minute of the game, Klopp celebrated directly in front of fourth official John Brooks, with Tierney subsequently showing him a yellow card.
Admitting his celebration was wrong and out of anger, Klopp revealed the emotion stemmed from what he believed was a soft foul given against Mohamed Salah on Ben Davies in the build-up to Spurs' equaliser to make it 3-3 just minutes beforehand.
When speaking after the game on Sunday afternoon, Klopp cryptically indicated Tierney had said something untoward when handing him his yellow card, while also suggesting the Premier League official is "against" Liverpool.
"We have our history with Tierney," Klopp said at the time. "I really don’t know what he has against us. He has said there is no problems, but that cannot be true.
"How he looks at me, I don’t understand it. What he said to me when he gave me the yellow card is not OK. I will not say anything. The refs don’t say what is said, so I don’t.”
The Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) "strongly refuted" Klopp's claims in response, though.
It said: “Match officials in the Premier League are recorded in all games via a communications system and having fully reviewed the audio of referee Paul Tierney from today’s fixture, we can confirm he acted in a professional manner throughout including when issuing the caution to the Liverpool manager so, therefore, we strongly refute any suggestion that Tierney’s actions were improper.”
Klopp has since calmed down, though, and revealed exactly what happened between himself at Paul Tierney during his pre-game press conference ahead of Liverpool's fixture against Fulham in the Premier League on Wednesday night.
"The whole situation should not have happened at all, that is it. It should not have happened at all, but it was out of emotion and anger in that moment," Klopp said.
"That is why I celebrated like I celebrated, there was the situation with the foul on Mo [Salah], no foul, but in my view a foul, free-kick, then another free-kick, then the goal. And then a minute later we scored and then you should just be happy that you scored a goal, but I was just angry.
"I did not say anything wrong, I was shouting: 'Without you, without you', which does not even make any sense.
During the celebrations, Klopp even seemed to pull his hamstring, though that was the least of his worries when Tierney approached him on the touchline.
"I did not want to get close to the fourth official, then Paul Tierney came over to me and I did not expect at all a red card to be honest, I did not feel that was right, I expected the yellow card and he said to me, 'For me it is a red card, but because of him, it is yellow', and he shows me a yellow and smiles in my face, that is it.
"Red card for what? So I just stood there and then left. We then go inside, I tried to calm down and it didn’t work out properly. I go into all the interviews and then I said what I said.
"Maybe I should have said he told me it was a red card and I didn't think it was. The rest of the things I said about how I feel about Paul Tierney whistling his games, I'm sure he is not doing intentionally but there is history. These things that happened in the past, in decisive games, happened. That's a feeling, nothing else."
Asked whether there had been talks with Tierney or the PGMOL yet, Klopp replied: "I don't know, it's not in my hands what is going on.
"We won a football game 4-3 in a spectacular manner and the only headlines were about me and I really regret that, it's not necessary and it is not how it should be.
"I have no clue what is happening now. We didn't hear yet from the FA, the refs or anyone else."
This season, Tierney has refereed Liverpool on no fewer than six occasions. The Reds have won two of those games, drawn two and lost two. They include the 2-2 draw with Arsenal at Anfield a month ago, as well as the 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace at the start of the campaign in which Darwin Nunez received a red card for headbutting Joachim Andersen.
However, Klopp's apparent gripe with the referee dates back to December 2021, also against Spurs. During the 2-2 draw, Tierney sent off Andy Robertson for kicking through Emerson Royal, though, in the first half, Harry Kane escaped a red card after a studs-up challenge on the left-back.
