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Pellegrini: Klopp is used to beating me with offside goals

Catherine Ivill / Getty Images Sport / Getty

West Ham United manager Manuel Pellegrini has suggested his Liverpool counterpart Jurgen Klopp "can't complain about nothing" when it comes to offside calls.

The Reds slipped again on Monday in their quest to win their first league title in 29 years, drawing 1-1 at the Hammers' London Stadium. But an uninspired performance could have resulted in a defeat had the linesman seen Liverpool's James Milner was offside - as clearly shown in replays - when he received the ball to cross for Sadio Mane to score.

After the game, Klopp and Pellegrini were shown in what appeared to be an animated disagreement. In his post-match interview, Klopp then seemed to suggest the referee may have attempted to atone for the error through some of his second-half decisions.

"We score the goal which was offside," Klopp said, according to BBC Sport. "The referee must know that at half-time, it explains the second half because I think the referee knew and you saw there were a lot of strange situations - not decisive, just rhythm breakers ...

"There were so many situations where it was 50-50 or 60-40 ... free kick for the other team. As a human being, I know if I make a big mistake in the first half I don't want to open the gap even more."

Pellegrini doesn't seem too impressed with the German's take on proceedings.

"Klopp is used to beating me with goals in offside," the Chilean said, as reported by AFP's Kieran Canning. "With Malaga against Dortmund, he beat me with a goal seven meters offside, so he can't complain about nothing."

Pellegrini was referring to the 2012-13 Champions League quarter-final second leg between his Malaga side and Klopp's Dortmund. The game ended 3-2 for the Germans after two injury-time goals, the second of which was scored by Felipe Santana from an offside position.

That defeat clearly still stings for Pellegrini. One can only imagine the uproar had Liverpool substitute Divock Origi fired past Lukasz Fabianski from another offside position to win the game in the closing stages.

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