Jürgen Klopp Charged with Misconduct by FA Over Pitch Invasion

Pitch invasion. That’s the Football Association’s term for it. Whether it’s the crowd spilling onto the pitch or a solitary manager running to hug his goalkeeper following a 96th minute winner. And it’s what Jürgen Klopp has been given a misconduct charge for.

It was clear it was coming, too, from the moment Klopp rushed to embrace Alisson at the halfway line following Divock Origi’s bizarre, unlikely, and just all-around miraculous headed goal that won Sunday’s Merseyside Derby. It was always going to be worth it.

According to journalists with ties to the club, Klopp is expected to accept the FA’s charge without contest and to be fined and warned over it. As long as he doesn’t do something like it again any time soon, that’s likely to be the end of it for Klopp and the club.

For fans of both Liverpool and Everton, it won’t be so quickly forgotten, and for Blues supporters in particular it will likely be a sore point for years to come—a final indignity after having had a result snatched from them at the last second in hilarious fashion.

Liverpool supporters on the other hand will savour it all, from Virgil van Dijk’s wildly mis-hit volley sailing into the sky to Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford flailing to keep the ball in play to it bouncing off the crossbar and onto Origi’s head and into the goal.

It was the perfect way, for Reds fans, to end what had until then been a frustrating derby match. It was yet another loss for an Everton that hasn’t won at Anfield since 1999. And Klopp’s celebration was totally worth the FA charge that was always coming.