Jürgen Klopp hailed Divock Origi after the forward’s 94th-minute goal gained Liverpool a ‘really big’ 1-0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Saturday’s Premier League clash at Molineux seemed set to end in stalemate, but Origi – introduced as a second-half substitute – spun on Mohamed Salah’s pass inside the box and fired in a low finish.
The strike was greeted with massive celebrations in the Reds’ dugout and the away section – and the manager felt it was extra special because Origi was the scorer.
Read Klopp’s reaction to a dramatic afternoon at Wolves with a full transcript of his post-match press conference below…
On whether the win was one that ‘wins you titles’…
If you do it 38 times, yes, absolutely. If you do it once, no. But anyway, it’s really important and feels really big today for us, to be honest, because it was a very difficult game. The wind makes football really difficult and today, especially for the dominant side it makes it really difficult. We missed a lot of chances and we had to defend the counter-attacks of Wolves with an incredible team. That was the challenge today. In these difficult circumstances I liked the game we played because we played between their lines in the first half. The start was maybe not really outstanding because we had to learn a little bit how we can play them. But when the boys found it out, then it looked really, really good – apart from the finishing or the last pass, these kinds of things. It was clear: when you don’t score you just have to keep going and that’s what we did. And then Divock Origi, the legend, came and finished it off for us. I love it.
On Liverpool’s ability to keep going until the very end…
We said it after the game, it was like the good old times – our good old times, like two years ago or so, when we really needed it badly. I guess Villa or wherever it was, I don’t remember all of them. But it’s an important skill to stay positive. It was not needed too often this season but it’s still an incredibly important skill and thank God we could show it today. It’s not a lucky win, even if of course it’s lucky when you score that late. But it’s not a lucky win in the sense they had chance after chance. No, we had chance after chance, we just didn’t score. I think a point would have been lucky for Wolves, so it’s the right result.
On why Origi has the knack for scoring big goals…
Because he is an incredible finisher – if we don’t know it at Liverpool, who should know it then? We saw that so often. How I said, it’s difficult to get 500 minutes a week in this team because of the players we have. But Divock Origi is an incredible football player. He is great in these moments, he doesn’t need a lot of run-up or time to find into a game, and especially not in this game today. It was his game, he could be Divock Origi 100 per cent: in and around the box, use your body, use your technique, finish the situations off. He was unlucky with the ball before I think, he was involved in a lot of good moments, he was a threat before he scored. These kinds of goals we see plenty of times in training and everywhere. Winning in the 95th minute is great, but when Div scores the goal it makes it even better, to be honest.