Allardyce disagrees with Klopp over key call in Merseyside derby

Oli Fisher

Everton boss Sam Allardyce disagreed with Jurgen Klopp’s suggestion that the late penalty in the Merseyside derby was the wrong decision.

Liverpool led through a superb first-half strike from Mohamed Salah, but they failed to capitalise on a string of chances to add to their lead and were pegged back when Dejan Lovren appeared to push over Dominic Calvert-Lewin, and Wayne Rooney lashed home his first goal in a Merseyside derby.

“They’ve scored 12 goals in their last two games so the object was to frustrate them and they created minimal chances for such a talented outfit,” Allardyce told the BBC.

“We were disappointed that in possession we were extremely poor, especially in the first half, so I had to make two changes and change the shape.

“We showed a tremendous defensive application to the game, waiting for an opportunity and then Wayne Rooney produced the sort of pass that would expose the Liverpool defence.

“I don’t think you can disagree with the penalty – Lovren pushed Calvert-Lewin over.

“[Jurgen Klopp can] moan all he wants, it’s a penalty. If you push somebody in the box – our player is goal side, so if he’s not touched, he doesn’t go over but he was touched, he goes over and it’s a penalty.

“It’s an extremely brave decision to give that for us in a derby at Anfield and the referee got it right.”