Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers felt Sadio Mane “made the most” of the challenge which led to Liverpool scoring an added-time penalty winner on his first return to Anfield.
The Reds looked like dropping their first points of the season when James Maddison equalised Mane’s first-half strike with 10 minutes remaining.
However, deep into five minutes of added time, Marc Albrighton’s loss of possession and subsequent challenge on Mane allowed James Milner to score from the spot to seal a 2-1 victory and extend Liverpool’s winning run to 17 successive Premier League matches – one short of Manchester City’s record.
What a pass. What a goal. 👌 Sadio's 50th @premierleague goal 🔥🔥🔥https://t.co/tR75DYovzZ — Liverpool FC (@LFC) October 5, 2019
“To concede a 95th-minute penalty was difficult to take,” said Rodgers after a VAR check ruled there was no reason for Chris Kavanagh to change his decision.
“I think he has made the most of the contact. Strikers now, they are clever. He has had a touch and gone over.
“If the referee didn’t give it I don’t think anyone would have said it was a clear and obvious error.
“I thought it was a very soft penalty, not clear and obvious that is for sure, but when the referee gives it, it is hard for the VAR to go against it.
“I thought we deserved a point. You come to the European champions and you have to be resilient and deal with pressure and show your own qualities.
“I felt we did that. I thought we could go on and win the game.
“To come here and be that competitive, it shows we are very much on the right path.”
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp was less interested in Albrighton’s challenge – an “obvious penalty” – and more concerned about the “dangerous as hell” one by substitute Hamza Choudhury which left Mohamed Salah hobbling out of Anfield after the match with an ankle injury.
“It’s just a challenge which I really don’t understand. How he can do it, because the ball is far away?” he said.
“The player is in full sprint to bring him down without the ball around, for me there is only one colour card.
“It is dangerous as hell. I don’t want to cause the boy any problems but he has to calm down. This is not the first situation like this.
“Super player but these kind of challenges… no. I don’t need to be a football manager to know this can cause serious injury. I only need two eyes!”
Klopp was considerably happier with how his side salvaged their winning run.
“If you get a point against Leicester this season, that will be a success for 95 per cent of teams,” he added.
“We don’t go for keeping the unbeaten run going, we only want to win football games.
“If winning eight games in a row would be easy a lot of teams would do it. It is really difficult but of course the boys have a bit of belief because they experience that, in our common past.
“So far so good but 30 games to come. We are not fussed by the situation, people talk to us about the winning streak, but not really.”
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