Liverpool: Klopp admits Diaz equalising goal is ‘a wonderful moment but doesn’t change his situation’
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp says Luis Diaz’s equaliser against Luton Town was “a wonderful moment but it doesn’t change the situation”.
Diaz came off the bench seven minutes from the end for his first appearance since his father was kidnapped in Colombia and got his head on Harvey Elliott’s cross five minutes into added time to deny Luton a famous win.
The former FC Porto winger lifted his shirt in celebration to reveal a message on a white T-shirt that read ‘libertad para papa’ or ‘freedom for my father’.
“A wonderful moment but it doesn’t change the situation,” Klopp told Sky Sports. “Most important thing is that his father gets released.
“It is wonderful he wanted to be here. That’s it, for us a super important goal and for him very important and emotional, but that’s it.”
“He can always do that (make an impact off the bench). When he is on the pitch he is always involved in special things.
“We knew he would be a threat, we didn’t know how long he would play because he only had a few sessions with the team but that is not the most important part today.
“He scored the goal but we need to see some improvement in Colombia.”
Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson added: “It says a lot about his character and inner strength. I can’t imagine what he’s going through.
“We’re supporting him and feeling his pain but for him it’s a different level. Football can bring joy to someone who is struggling. Football is bringing joy to Luis at this moment.
“He scored a fantastic goal for us which was really important.
“When you’re on the pitch you focus on the job. He did it for us.”
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Klopp admitted that his players did not do enough to win the match.
“Wonderful highlight in a game with not a lot of highlights and Luis came on and scored a goal,” the German manager told BBC Sport. “It’s really great.
“We should have done better. Credit to Luton. We had our moments but weren’t calm enough to finish our situations off.
“When you go 1-0 down and score an equaliser it’s a result you rather like. Before the game I wouldn’t have thought so. It’s a result both teams deserve.
“We played without counter-pressing in the first half which I almost take personally and I told the boys. I can’t remember a lot of times we won the ball back and that’s not cool.
“It’s one of these days. Time goes by and it’s not getting easier. It wasn’t our best day.”
Klopp added to Sky Sports: “Credit to Luton and how they defended and how they set up but it was mainly up to us. We had a lot of chances and should have had much more.
“It is a tricky task to stay fully concentrated. Looking at the game I think we didn’t deserve more than a point. We could have won the game with the chances we had but now looking at it I think we deserved a point.
On Nunez: “He was offside once or twice. The one ball Mo squares with the header I think Mo could do it himself, that was as well a big chance, but these are the moments. Unlucky, we had other moments.
“He was really involved in everything. It is fine. It is not our dream result but we are always old enough to accept them.”
On being booked: “I was surprised by the yellow card. I deserve a lot of cards in my life but this one I do not know why.”
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