Jürgen Klopp admitted the manner of Liverpool’s 2-2 draw with Tottenham Hotspur was tough to take after they were denied victory by a late penalty at Anfield on Sunday afternoon.
John Moss pointed to the spot in the final moments of the Anfield affair after lengthy discussions with his assistant. Harry Kane stepped up to take the penalty despite missing from the spot moments before.
However, the Premier League top-scorer didn't need asking twice as he slotted past a helpless Loris Karius to keep the gap between the Reds and the Londerners to just two points.
Mohamed Salah put the Reds in front after just three minutes on Merseyside, latching onto a poor backpass from Eric Dier gifting the Reds forward who steered his effort beyond Hugo Lloris.
The hosts held onto that advantage until the 80th minute when substitute Victor Wanyama found the top corner from range with a thumping half-volley that is a contender for Goal of the Season after Karius had punched clear a cross into the six-yard box.
Liverpool's top-scorer Salah had seemed to have clinched victory minutes earlier as his superb solo effort and his second goal of the game in the 90th minute looked to have snatched all three points as the Egyptian took his league tally of goals to a staggering 21 with 13 games still left to play.
However, it was Kane who had the last laugh to leave Jürgen Klopp stunned with the drama that had filled Anfield that Sunday evening. The match itself was one of the most dramatic matches of the Premier League this season and a draw can be considered a very much fair result.
Klopp: 'softest touch decided the game'
Reds boss Klopp later spoke in a post-match press conference and said: "The game was a very intense game; two really good sides with real challenges.
"The softest touch in the whole game decides the game. It’s not a penalty, it’s a situation. I heard Lamela was even offside in the situation with one leg. [He was] running into Virgil van Dijk, Virgil sees him in the last moment and stops the movement but still touches him, Lamela is already on the way down.
"The ref says ‘keep on going’, the linesman makes the decision – that’s how it is, that’s how everyone saw." the German boss added.
"The first penalty was one of the clearest offside situations I have seen so far. In the moment when the ball left the foot of the Tottenham player, Harry Kane is offside and this situation never changed. Nobody touched it apart from Dejan, [so] my defence put him offside, that is good defending.
I don’t know what they [match officials] discussed, but it’s not to change."
Klopp continued:"Overall of the 90 minutes, yes Tottenham had more possession but mainly in the build-up in their own half. We had more possession in the opposite half. That was the game; they have their playing build-up, they have their wide formation.
"We wanted to press these situations, which is what we did especially in the first half in a fantastic way. We caused them a lot of problems, we scored an early goal and had many fantastic situations, crosses from everywhere and put them under pressure. But Tottenham are a good side - a really good side - so they had their moments in their first half and then especially in the second half", the German boss added.
"It was an outstanding goal and an outstanding performance"
Liverpool's £34 million summer signing Salah has become nothing short of a revelation at Anfield and the former Roma forward has already become the quickest Reds player to reach 20 Premier League goals surpassing the likes of Fernando Torres and Daniel Sturridge.
Klopp was asked by the media what he thought about Salah's performance and said: "It was a fantastic goal, an outstanding goal. It was an outstanding performance, [he was] a threat the whole 90 minutes, that’s true."
Another brace for the 25-year-old means he surpassed even some of Liverpool's most iconic and prolific goalscorers including the likes of Reds superstars Robbie Fowler and Luis Suarez.
Liverpool will now turn their attention to Sunday afternoon as a trip to St Mary's awaits as the Reds will know another win will keep them third and their top-four credentials very much in-tact.