Jurgen Klopp claims Liverpool 'punishment' as dressing room reaction explained

Jurgen Klopp praised the ruthless manner in which Liverpool punished Sparta Prague’s “risky” approach

Two goals from Darwin Nunez, an Alexis Mac Allister penalty and second-half strikes from Luis Diaz and Dominik Szoboszlai earned the Reds a 5-1 win

Sparta had caused Liverpool a number of problems during the first half in which Caoimhin Kelleher made several good stops

When asked if the final scoreline was harsh on the home side,

Klopp said:

"Yes, the result is much better than the performance, that's true.

"Sparta played a good game. Sparta took some risks in our possession, they (were) hiding wingers slightly (and) our protection was not good, so they could create these counter-attacks."

"We lost a few unnecessary balls, which is then difficult to protect, but in other moments we should have done better."

“We adapted during the game and we told the boys at half-time how we should do it, but then we conceded a goal immediately.

"But after that it was much better. It looked like two of their big chances were offside but Caoimhin made big saves, but that’s fine.

“They took risks and we punished them for that. In other moments we scored wonderful goals, we had really good moments in the game, and we weren’t thinking we’d come here and it would be a walk in the park.

"We didn’t expect an easy game and it wasn’t, but it was a good result."