Jurgen Klopp reveals Diogo Jota suffered injury during ‘deserved’ win over Inter

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has revealed that Diogo Jota suffered an ankle injury during the Champions League win over Inter, also admitting that his team fell short of a ‘brilliant’ performance.

The Reds will take a 2-0 aggregate lead into the home leg of the last 16 tie at Anfield next month, but it was only after surviving intense Inter pressure that substitute Roberto Firmino eventually nudged Liverpool noses in front. Mohamed Salah made sure of the result late on.

Klopp described the contest as ‘incredibly physical’ when he spoke to BT Sport afterwards.

“I think we started really well [but] too often our full-backs were alone in one-on-one situations – it doesn’t work properly like that. In a game like this, you have to keep the ball longer and that didn’t happen often enough,” he explained.

“You cannot come here and hope that you have a brilliant day and that’s the only chance to get a result. We didn’t have a brilliant day, but a good enough day to be a deserved winner because we scored two wonderful goals.”

Firmino was sent on at half-time in place of Jota, who was suffering from an ankle complaint. Luis Diaz, Jordan Henderson and Naby Keita were also thrown into game soon after.

“It was perfect how the [substitutes] reacted,” Klopp said. “All of them want to start, but…all my respect to Hendo’s performance and Naby, who came on. Luis is so natural. That was all very helpful.

“At half-time, when you can bring Bobby Firmino on…he needed time to get into the game because he got the ball in the most difficult central areas where it comes from all directions. When he scored the goal, you could see the confidence back after that the ball was our friend again.”

The only downside for Liverpool was the aforementioned injury suffered by Jota, who initially carried on after suffering the problem during the first half.

“[It is] something around the ankle ligament,” Klopp said. “We don’t know exactly [what is wrong]. He could play on, which was maybe a good sign, but at half-time the ankle was swollen anyway so we had to change.”

For more from Jamie Spencer, follow him on Twitter and Facebook!