Paris Saint-Germain coach Thomas Tuchel suggested Jurgen Klopp was trying to deflect attention from Liverpool’s Champions League loss by criticising the referee.
Klopp was furious with PSG’s antics and numerous other decisions that he felt made his team – who picked up six yellow cards – “look like butchers” in their 2-1 loss in Paris on Wednesday.
PSG midfielder Marco Verratti escaped with a yellow card for a rash challenge on Joe Gomez, while Liverpool were awarded a first-half penalty only after referee Szymon Marciniak appeared to initially signal for a corner.
Tuchel refused to be drawn on the matter, but said Klopp, like many coaches, may have been using the referee to keep the pressure off his team.
“I did not feel like it was such a big issue. We had five minutes overtime, we suffered a lot of fouls,” he told a news conference.
“You don’t have to do fouls if you’re one goal down and you do 10 fouls in five minutes.
“You think it’s the other way around in a crucial match like that? I’ve never experienced it the other way around that the team goes to hurry that everyone has the chance to make an equaliser.
“I don’t even want to talk about it because for me it’s not a subject.”