Jurgen Klopp emphasised Liverpool will not centre blame for their Champions League exit on goalkeeper Adrian following his howler against Atletico Madrid in a 4-2 defeat on aggregate.
The European champions were 2-1 ahead in the tie courtesy of goals from Gini Wijnaldum and Roberto Firmino at Anfield, but on 97 minutes, Alisson’s deputy kicked a clearance straight at Joao Felix. The attacker obligingly fed Marcos Llorente, who curled a shot into the far corner.
That gave Atleti, who had been on the canvas for much of the encounter, the advantage on away goals and the Spaniard scored again after being encouraged to shoot at Adrian with his effort dipping under the keeper’s dive.
The final blow on the night from Diego Simeone’s men came with Alvaro Morata beating Liverpool’s second-choice stopper at the near post.
Adrian’s unconvincing performance was spotlighted with Jan Oblak being a shot-stopper supreme in Atleti’s goal, producing nine saves.
“He’s a man and he knows that’s how it is,” Klopp said of the criticism the 33-year-old, Liverpool’s Super Cup hero, will receive.
“We will not blame him for a second - what you do, I don’t know, but stay respectful, that would be really nice.
“He did not want to do that, he saved us in so many moments when he played. Since he’s here, he had super performances.
“This goal didn’t help tonight but that’s how it is. I said, if you lose a game you always lose for some (different) reasons. Tonight, this was not the moment that we lost the game, but it had a big impact.
“We should not say it was not like this because it was obvious but that’s it. We conceded more goals after this and we didn’t score the goals in other situations. We had plenty of reasons why we didn’t go through. How it is in life, especially when your job is in public, people judge you.
“But he’s a grown man and he will deal with that. We will help him with that but I don’t think he needs it, to be honest.”
