What a display of frustration! Jurgen Klopp, who led his team to the Champions League final last season, found himself losing his temper on Wednesday, vehemently disputing the first goal by Napoli (resulting in a 2-1 loss). As a consequence of his actions, he was subsequently expelled from the match.
The Dortmund coach criticized the referees for allowing the Italian club to take a set piece while his defender, Neven Subotic, who had just returned to the field after an injury, had not been given sufficient time to recover.
This marked Dortmund’s first defeat in the competition. Klopp later offered an apology after the match, acknowledging, “(Regarding his red card) The incident began before the corner. Subotic was ready, but the referee didn’t allow him to enter the field because he still had a bit of blood on his forehead. I became really angry with the sixth referee, accusing him of not having seen what was happening. However, it’s my fault, and I wanted to apologize to him after the match. I was caught up in the atmosphere of the game, influenced by the emotion of the moment. Sometimes, in these circumstances, we show the worst of ourselves… But the subsequent red card (for the goalkeeper) was even more detrimental to us; the match became much more challenging. If the only way to qualify was to win all the matches, that would be a problem, yes (ironically)… But it’s true that we didn’t start well in the group. Tonight, we weren’t good enough, and we need to be better, even though we also did some positive things. Our defeat is deserved, but we engage in self-criticism within this team,” as reported by L’Equipe.
