Jeremie Frimpong hits back at Liverpool critics as exciting Florian Wirtz claim made

Jeremie Frimpong reacts to Liverpool's late 3-2 victory over Atletico Madrid

Jeremie Frimpong has hit back at Liverpool’s critics, dismissing any suggestions they have been lucky after scoring a late winner for the fifth game in a row. Virgil van Dijk headed home in stoppage-time as the Reds’ beat Atletico Madrid 3-2 in their opening Champions League match.

The Dutchman became the fifth different player to score a late winner for Liverpool this season, following in the footsteps of Federico Chiesa, Rio Ngumoha, Dominik Szoboszlai and Mohamed Salah.

The Reds are top of the Premier League table with an 100 per cent winning record thanks to such strikes despite the fact that they have not been at their best so far during the campaign.

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However, they did impress against Atletico, with Andy Robertson and Mohamed Salah scoring early goals before being pegged back by a Marcos Llorente brace.

Frimpong was a member of the Bayer Leverkusen side that won a domestic double under Xabi Alonso in 2023/24, losing just once all season as they scored a plethora of decisive late goals.

And while the Netherlands international admits it was frustrating to see Liverpool throw away a two-goal lead against Leverkusen, he praised the squad’s mentality after their latest late victory as he shared his desire to win trophies with the Reds.

“It’s part of football. Sometimes you score last-minutes,” he said. “I’ve had a lot of last-minutes in my career so far, usually with Leverkusen but the most important thing is that we won.

“I think we deserved to win, we were the better team, we played really well.

“Exactly, (it’s more than luck). In a match, you never know when you’re going to score. Of course, you like to score early on but sometimes it doesn’t work like that.

“It’s part of football. Sometimes you score late, sometimes you score early. Sometimes it’s like that.

“Of course (we were a little frustrated to be throw away the lead). I feel like when you’re 2-0 up, you want to keep the lead or score more.

“But it’s Champions League, we’re playing Atletico Madrid. Of course we can do better to stop it, but it’s football.

“We’re doing well right now, we’ve won all of our games. Football is about winning. Of course we can play better but if you play better and lose, no-one is going to care about that.

“Football is winning. Of course we can play better but the most important thing is winning.

“To win trophies you have to win. Of course play good as well, but you have to win and score goals.

“This is why I came to Liverpool. Liverpool is a winning team. They know how to win trophies and that’s what I want to do.”

Frimpong was one of two players to join Liverpool from Leverkusen this summer, along with Florian Wirtz.

The German has faced some criticism for a perceived quiet start to his Reds career, having failed to register a goal contribution in the Premier League.

But while he failed to break that duck against Atletico, the playmaker put in his most impressive performance for Arne Slot’s side to date in Liverpool’s win over the La Liga outfit.

And having played alongside Wirtz for a number of years, Frimpong insists his team-mate is only just getting started.

“He’s just getting started, you know,” he told the club. “Obviously I’ve been with him for four years at Leverkusen so I know what he can do.

“And I’m seeing that, it’s coming! There is a lot more to see from him.”

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