The Reds had, of course, already secured top spot in the pool prior to their trip to Denmark, where Mohamed Salah’s goal inside the opening minute put them ahead before Alexander Scholz equalised with a penalty just after the hour mark.
It appeared that Takumi Minamino had snatched a late winner when he put Sadio Mane’s headed knockdown away, but the goal was disallowed for handball by the No.10 following a VAR review.
Read on for a summary of Klopp’s post-match press conference at Arena Herning…
Watch match highlights on LFCTV GO
On whether the start to the season has been as strong as he could have hoped for given the number of injuries Liverpool have had…
Honestly it’s absolutely not the moment to think about this kind of thing. We played a game with a good first half and a not-so-good second half. We got a point for it… but now Fulham is already in my mind so I cannot really think about what happened so far. To be with whoever at the top of the table is always good in each part of the season, so that’s OK. We feel we could have had even more points: we lost completely deserved at Villa, a point at [Manchester] City was OK - but Brighton and Everton, performance-wise and situation-wise we could have or should have, I’m not sure, won. So we could have more but that’s the past and now it’s Fulham, and they expect our full focus and they will get it. From now on, that’s it.
On Salah becoming the club’s leading Champions League goalscorer and whether he considered it a risk to play the Egyptian…
You saw it in the second half, you can make changes but you need a few key positions and of course it could have been one of the other three up-front as well. In the last line, obviously that was the reason why Fabinho played 45 minutes, that we have that there as well. In midfield, it probably usually would have been Naby but he didn’t play that often so he couldn’t fulfil that role maybe. He just needs to get minutes now again. That’s it and that was the decision for Mo. Then how the game developed, how the players looked, Mo looked fine, that’s why we didn’t take him off and for other players, even when they don’t play that much then it’s just really difficult to get through a full 90 minutes after a pretty long time without having 90 minutes. Mo, I was in contact with him, he had no issues and that was the reason why we left him on the pitch and why he started.
On Leighton Clarkson and Billy Koumetio learning from their Champions League debuts…
They will and especially if we let them make the experience without now making this one game too big. It’s a wonderful, wonderful thing to have your first Champions League game but a career is all about how many you will have or how many games overall you will play. So both boys have a lot to learn. They are already really skilled but they have a lot to learn and we will give them the time to do so. Again, tonight they helped us a lot because we could rest other players which was very important and there was actually no alternative. So yeah, I’m pretty sure it was a big night for both of them and I am really thankful that they are already as good as they are. That’s the reason why we can use them, but I know there is a lot more to come.
On his assessment of the game…
Two different halves, completely different. I liked the football we played in the first half, especially with the so-much-changed team we had tonight. The way we played, the way the boys adapted, not to forget that Takumi Minamino played now only the second time in that position – once in Brighton, which was a different game, and tonight it looked already much better. I really like the football we played first half, we had really big… if it’s not a chance then nearly a chance, I’m not sure what is the English word for that. But we had a lot of these moments which we could have used in a better way and that was good.
We wanted to build on that in the second half and that didn’t work out. We didn’t play football anymore and Midtjylland became even more physical, pretty direct. We didn’t defend their throw-ins that good anymore, it’s not rocket science that they always try to switch the sides with these balls, it’s just that if you don’t defend on the one side then you have to run to the other side and defend it there and that’s much more intense. First half we did that much better than second half, so all these different things. But the main part was that we didn’t play good enough football in the second half and that’s the reason why the game was much more open in the second half. The situation where Midtjylland scored the goal was really unlucky – Kostas Tsimikas was outside I think, now Leighton was in the left-back position and that’s why it was I think really close with offside… if there is the usual player in that position then he is probably offside. We thought it was offside but it was not. So, the penalty 1-1 and then the momentum really swapped to Midtjylland. They were really believing and we were only hard-working. In the moments where we played football we were immediately in and around their box with really a lot of space because of the man-marking of Midtjylland – and when you move in the right moment you can really use that. We did that in some moments really well but in the end, they scored their goal and another one which was slightly offside. We scored a goal which I’ve heard meanwhile was handball. Yeah, 1-1. That’s it.
On whether there is anything left to say about Salah’s talent and his goalscoring exploits…
I’m not sure! [It’s] one record after the other. I didn’t know that he could break this record tonight but I’m pretty sure he is proud of that. He should be. Exceptional player, absolutely exceptional player. Since we worked together obviously a lot of things clicked really for all of us. He helps the team massively and he knows and appreciates the help of the team as well. If we would have only Mo, even the incredible number of goals he got would not have been enough to be as successful as we were so thank God others scored a lot of goals as well. That made this team pretty successful but that Mo is a very exceptional player - I think nobody doubted it, but if you need numbers to prove it then he delivers that as well.