Jurgen Klopp defends controversial drop-ball decision in Nottingham Forest win

The Reds opened up a four-point lead over Manchester City at the top of the Premier League standings with a 1-0 win at the City Ground, ending a run of 13 league games without victory on the Tricky Trees' turf.

Liverpool would seemingly be consigned to take home just one point from Nottinghamshire, but with 99 minutes on the board, Nunez's deft header from Alexis Mac Allister's cross nestled into the bottom corner to spark ecstasy in the away end.

Nunez's goal went down as Liverpool's latest-ever winning goal on record in the Premier League - and the 10th latest in the history of the competition - but Nottingham Forest were left enraged at the full-time whistle owing to a controversial call from Paul Tierney.

Ibrahima Konate dropped to the turf with an apparent head injury as a cross was swung into the Liverpool box, and Callum Hudson-Odoi picked up the loose ball outside of the area and took a couple of touches before Tierney blew his whistle.

Under FA and IFAB rules, the ball can only be dropped for the defending team if the ball was in the penalty box or last touched in the area before play was stopped, otherwise the drop-ball is awarded to the side of the player who last touched it.

With Hudson-Odoi regaining possession of the ball before play was halted, the call should have gone Forest's way according to the laws of the game, but Liverpool were instead awarded the decision and quickly went up the other end of the field to break Forest hearts.

Unsavoury scenes at the end saw several Tricky Trees representatives remonstrate with Tierney, who booked Felipe, sent off first-team coach Steven Reid and was apparently chased by Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis in the tunnel.

Klopp was quizzed on the incident in his post-game press conference, but the German affirmed that he saw no reason to open that can of worms and referenced a similar decision earlier in the game, which he claimed highlighted consistency in Tierney's officiating.

"It happened exactly the same in the first half, didn't it? It was exactly the same, just the other way around, right? What would you say about that? I expected it exactly to happen like that because it happened in the first half like that," Klopp responded.

"If it wouldn't have happened in the first half, I would have asked a question as well. But I would now assume that's the rule. I don't know to be 100 per cent sure because it happened twice and twice it got handled exactly the same.

"So, I don't really see the reason for the discussions because that's it and I don't know how many passes we had to play to arrive there and score the goal. But I understand 100 per cent the excitement and the anger and stuff like this of Nottingham, of course.

"They fight for everything and I understand that, but I think with the particular situation where it was twice the same then I would say that's consistent."

Forest boss Nuno Espirito Santo was also asked for his thoughts on the decision, but the Portuguese refused to comment as his side were cruelly denied a point on their own turf.

Liverpool - whose lead will be cut back down to one point if Manchester City beat Manchester United on Sunday - now return to Europa League duty away to Sparta Prague in Thursday's last-16 first leg.