Klopp: Shrewsbury deserved at least a draw

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp accepted Shrewsbury Town earned a lucrative FA Cup fourth-round replay at Anfield after coming from behind to earn a 2-2 draw against the world champions.

Curtis Jones scored for the second round in a row to put the Reds in front on Sunday and their lead was doubled immediately after half-time when Donald Love scored a comical own goal.

League One side Shrewsbury would not give up, however, with substitute Jason Cummings scoring twice, his first goal coming from the penalty spot, to send the home fans into raptures.

Klopp named a young side, as he did in the third round against Merseyside rivals Everton, though Dejan Lovren and Joel Matip started at the back with Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino late arrivals off the bench as the Reds sought to avoid a replay.

And Klopp had no arguments with the result as Shrewsbury pulled off one of the biggest shocks of this season's FA Cup.

"We sent today so many invitations to the opponent it was always difficult to win the game," he told BBC Sport.

"I don’t think we have the time to say all the things which were not right today. 

"We scored a really wonderful goal which was, not the only football moment but it was a football moment.

"Apart from that, Adrian had absolutely too much to do, he was brilliant. The counter-attacks they had when we lost the ball. That’s how it is. 

"Big present directly after half-time, 2-0, it just didn’t look like on the pitch that we were 2-0 up, it looked like we were 2-1 down. 

"Congratulations to Shrewsbury, well deserved, it was the minimum they deserved today."

 

January 26, 2020

Shrewsbury manager Sam Ricketts felt his side could have pushed for a winner until Klopp sent on Firmino and Salah in the closing stages.

"For five, 10 minutes I was thinking, 'Let's go and get this'," Ricketts told BBC Sport. 

"As the game goes on and Liverpool bring on Firmino and Salah, it changed a little bit, alarm bells were ringing. 

"I said to the lads, 'You could have won it, but you all wanted to go to Anfield, didn’t you!'"