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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Samuel Meade

Jurgen Klopp's reaction after Antonio Conte slapped ball out of Liverpool coach's hand

Jurgen Klopp managed to calm tensions on the touchline by hugging members of the Tottenham staff during his side's win.

Liverpool visited north London on Sunday afternoon and dominated the first half, scoring twice courtesy of Mohamed Salah's smart finishes. Tottenham were looking to get back into the contest and Antonio Conte didn't want to see his opposition waste any time.

The ball went out and bounced into the arms of Liverpool's No 2 Pep Lijnders, who caught it. A new ball had been handed to a Tottenham player, ready to take the throw-in, and Conte rushed over to the opposition bench and knocked the ball out of Lijnders' hand.

Antonio Conte reacted angrily in the first-half (Sky Sports)
Jurgen Klopp had missed the incident (Sky Sports)

The Dutch coach had a baffled look on his face whilst Klopp, who had his back to the incident, turned round and raised his arms as if to question what had gone on. Tempers threatened to boil over but calmness was quickly restored with Klopp hugging members of Tottenham's staff whilst Conte and Lijnders also shared an embrace.

Tottenham were able to rally in the second half with Harry Kane pulling one back for the hosts, who were looking to mount yet another comeback. They were unable to do so as they fell to a fourth league defeat of the season. Despite that Conte refused to blame his side and instead labelled the result as "unfair".

The Tottenham boss and Pep Lijnders shared a hug after calm had been restored (Sky Sports)

He told Sky Sports: "It is difficult to explain the defeat tonight, we deserved much more but also after the first half in the dressing room I was happy with the desire and what we did. We put a lot of pressure on Liverpool and were 2-0 down but we didn't know why. In the second half we played really well. Their goalkeeper made good saves and we hit the post and the crossbar. I think the result is unfair.

"It is difficult to explain this type of game. For sure the performance was good. We are managing a situation with many, many injuries and we need to find new solutions. This type of performance against a team like Liverpool gives me satisfaction as it shows the hard work works."

Will Liverpool finish in the top four? Tell us what you think here.

Tottenham have one more league game before the World Cup break, which comes after their Carabao Cup clash against Nottingham Forest. Leeds are then their final assignment before a month's break for the tournament in Qatar.

Harry Kane, who will be a leading light for England, said after the defeat: "We fought until the end and we knew if we got one back we would have chances to get a second but unfortunately we couldn't do it and it's disappointing."

"We need to be better at controlling games and we have to look back at this game but I don't think it was terrible, we just got punished with two clinical goals. In the second half we were the better team so we will not panic but we need to be better for sure."

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