Jurgen Klopp praises Liverpool’s battling qualities after late win over Wolves

Posted Sunday, December 05, 2021 by PA

Jurgen Klopp hailed Liverpool’s character after Divock Origi’s dramatic late winner at Wolves.

The substitute struck deep into stoppage time to snatch a last-gasp 1-0 victory at Molineux.

Resilient Wolves looked like they would be the first team to stop Liverpool scoring since April but were undone at the death as the Reds claimed a fourth straight Premier League win.

“We said after the game it was like the good old times of two years ago when we really needed it badly,” said Klopp.

Saturday night and I like the way you move…DIVOCK ORIGI!!🎶 pic.twitter.com/kFkgDjzU4T
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) December 4, 2021

“It’s an important skill to stay positive and it wasn’t needed too often this season but it’s still an incredibly important skill.

“It’s not a lucky win in the sense they had chance after chance. We did and just didn’t score. A point would have been lucky for Wolves.

“If you do it (win 1-0) 38 times, yes, (you can win the league), do it once, no. It was really important and really big for us. It was a very difficult game.

“We missed a lot of chances and we had to defend the counter attack of Wolves. That was the challenge but I liked the game we played.

Jurgen Klopp praises Liverpool’s battling qualities after late win over Wolves — Liverpool left it late at Molineux (Nigel French/PA)

“We had to learn how we could play them but when the boys found it out it was really good, apart from the last pass.

“When you don’t score you just have to keep going and that’s what we did. Divock Origi, the legend, came and finished it off for us.”

Diogo Jota, against his former club, headed wide in the first half as Liverpool dominated without being at their fluid best.

It took until the second half for the Reds to find serious openings and they should have gone ahead after an hour.

Jose Sa’s mistake allowed Jota to run on goal and he raced through but could only smack the ball straight at the covering Conor Coady on the line.

Sa denied Sadio Mane as it looked like Liverpool would be frustrated only for Origi to snatch the victory in the fourth minute of stoppage time.

Virgil Van Dijk’s searching pass found Mohamed Salah and he crossed for Origi to easily hold off Coady and fire in his fourth goal of the season from close range.

“The most important thing to say is when we win we win together, when we lose we lose together,” said Wolves boss Bruno Lage, with his side eighth.

“Our job and strategy was to never give the transition to them. We needed to be ready every time. We did that most of the time.

“I don’t want to point to anyone, it’s frustrating because when I see my players’ faces, we deserved everything we planned and not to lose.

“We had the same question against Leeds and now the same situation here. We are a little bit disappointed, it’s hard to lose the point but, when you look at what we did, me and the fans should be proud of our players.

“We have to move on, this is football. We had the same taste against Leeds. We had the opposite against Aston Villa.”