Klopp sees Spurs as title rivals, Mourinho demands killer touch

Roberto Firmino grabbed the winner in the 90th minute to keep Liverpool on top of the league

LIVERPOOL:

Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp believes Tottenham Hotspur will be in the battle for the Premier League title right until the end, despite their 2-1 defeat to his side at Anfield on Wednesday.

Roberto Firmino grabbed the winner in the 90th minute after Spurs looked set for a point having missed two great chances to take the lead after the break.

"They will be top of the table until the end of the season because they are really good. But to play against them is a proper challenge and to play like us, is pretty special," said the German.

Klopp's counterpart Jose Mourinho said his team had deserved not only a point but victory from the game but the German, not surprisingly disagreed.

"It was a top game, (we) deserved the three points against a top side, organisation-wise so difficult to play against them with the counter-attacking threat they have. So, I liked the game a lot," he said.

"Of course Tottenham had chances, I know that they scored a goal and an unbelievably tight offside decision – we are really not lucky with these moments in the moment. They had other chances.

"But around these moments we were completely in charge of the game, which is important, stay concentrated, protected our attacks sensationally well, counter-press was good, passing was good," he added.

Mourinho brushed off talk of his team being title contenders but said they had to learn how to finish off their opponents in big games.

"I think the first thing that makes title contenders is to go to every match to win it, with that ambition.

"I promise you that the ambition is there. If in any match you see us not trying to win it, it's not because we won't want to... it's because the opponent pushes us to different situations.

"You have to kill matches of this dimension. You have just to kill it. The game was there. We were in the face of the keeper two or three times and we just have to kill it.

"Steven Bergwijn has two face to face with the keeper, we have the corner of Harry (Kane) with the free header, we had other counter-attacking situations that we didn't finish.

"We had it, we knew how to hurt and we should do much more than we did," he said.