Diogo Jota screamed at Leicester City supporters after scoring the winning penalty for Liverpool during the shootout that decided their Carabao Cup quarter-final in December 2021
Jurgen Klopp has revealed Diogo Jota’s screaming celebration after scoring against Leicester City during their 2021 League Cup quarter-final was in response to poverty chants. Jota scored Liverpool’s winning penalty and celebrated animatedly while looking towards the away fans in the lower Anfield Road End.
Klopp has recalled that moment when remembering his late player in an article for The Observer. The club’s former manager wrote: “Diogo said in his first interview as a Liverpool player that he was ‘a team player. I will help (the team) the best I can.’
“He lived those words every day. Ability plus attitude. That is why he had such a big impact in Liverpool.
He was the supporters’ representative on the pitch. As demonstrated by his reaction to slotting the winning penalty against Leicester City in the Carabao Cup… a competition we went on to win. He was screaming at the away section of Anfield, and I wondered why.
“Later, I was told it was because he took exception to chants from some of Leicester’s supporters that night about poverty in Liverpool. So Diogo.”
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Leicester led 2-0 inside 13 minutes on that night through two goals from Jamie Vardy, after the second of which their supporters sang about feeding the Scousers. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain scored soon after, but James Maddison restored the visitors’ two-goal advantage before half-time.
Jota started the match as a substitute, but came on at the break and made it 3-2 midway through the half. Takumi Minamino then equalised in the fifth minute of added time to take the tie to a penalty shootout.
Both teams scored their first three penalties, with Caoimhin Kelleher saving Leicester’s fourth from Luke Thomas. Minamino, however, missed the Reds’ fifth with a chance to win the shootout.
Kelleher then saved from Ryan Bertrand, setting the stage for Jota to step up and send Liverpool into the semi-finals for the first time in four years. The Reds ultimately overcame Arsenal in the two-legged tie, thanks to two goals from Jota at the Emirates Stadium, before again winning on penalties against Chelsea in the final.
Jota scored his spot-kick at Wembley Stadium, with each team scoring their first ten penalties before the Blues’ goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga fired his over the goalkeeper. That was the first of three trophies he won at Liverpool, adding the FA Cup later that season and the Premier League title in May.
Klopp also wrote in The Observer: “Diogo Jota. I still smile every time I say or hear the name. Honestly, it brings this big, beaming grin to my face . Affection. Appreciation. Love.
“It is a strange contradiction, I know, that thinking about Diogo makes me happy because losing him, and losing him in the way we did, is impossible to understand. It just felt – and still feels – so cruel.
“One of those moments where even people who believe in a bigger purpose, in a higher meaning – like I do, like Diogo did – find themselves asking questions. Why Diogo? Why now? Why like this?”
