Picture Credit: Twitter
According to a new report, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was labelled “borderline xenophobic” by a Manchester City official after his comments. On Sunday Liverpool clinched a vital win over Man City at Anfield, with Mohamed Salah scoring the only goal of a highly intense game of football.
Before the Reds’ registered a 1-0 win over City, Klopp was talking about how Liverpool can reach Manchester City’s level. The German coach talked about how three clubs in world football have nearly unlimited resources. Klopp was referencing the oil-rich trifecta of Man City, Paris Saint-Germain and, more recently, Newcastle.
Klopp said, “There are three clubs in world football who can do what they want financially. It’s legal and everything is fine, but they can do what they want. We have to look at ‘we need this, we need that, we have to look here and make it younger, and here a prospect, and here a talent’. That’s what you have to do. It’s not a problem at all for me, it’s like it is.”
Reacting to this statement an unnamed source from City, reported by the Times‘ Paul Hirst, has accused of Klopp being a ‘borderline xenophobic’. The comment said, “This comment angered some at City, who felt Klopp’s words were borderline xenophobic,” Hirst wrote. “City felt that Klopp’s comments whipped up tensions ahead of a game that has a history of trouble.”
This wasn’t the only controversy from this fixture as reports of coins being thrown from the home end at Pep Guardiola as he reacted to a disallowed goal. Klopp stated that he was not aware of any such actions but Pep Guardiola sarcastically said that the fans showed less accuracy than when the Manchester City bus was attacked in 2018.
That incident, when the bus was stoned on its way into the stadium for a Champions League quarter-final after Merseyside Police had revealed the route they would be taking days in advance. The day after this fixture reports once again surfaced that City's bus was pelted again as it made its way out on Anfield Road.
