Cesc Fabregas went into the Liverpool dressing room to apologise for his red card challenge on Ragnar Klavan during Chelsea's International Champions Cup victory, Jurgen Klopp has confirmed.
Fabregas was shown a straight red card 20 minutes from the end of the match at the Rose Bowl Stadium for a late lunge on Liverpool's new signing Klavan, leaving the centre-back clutching his foot in agony.
An earlier goal from Gary Cahill ensured Chelsea won despite the Spaniard's dismissal, though Klopp said there could be no doubts about the decision of the referee.
"It’s a red card," he told reporters. "He came by us in the dressing room and said sorry. He came too late in the challenge, of course.
"Sometimes in life if you are too late you get a red card, especially in football. That’s how it was."
Speaking about the intensity of the friendly ahead of the new season, Klopp said: It was normal intensity with a few hard challenges, that’s how it is.
"All of the players are not in 100 per cent shape so are sometimes a little bit late in the challenges, that’s how it is.
"The ref thought from the beginning he should show early yellow cards. I don’t think it was too hard. It was far away from a friendly game and that’s OK, that’s why we are here."
Chelsea's slim victory was Antonio Conte's first test against a potential Premier League title rival, and Klopp was impressed with the Blues' defending after going a goal ahead.
"When a team with the quality of Chelsea defends so deep then every team in the world will have a little problem," he added.
Chelsea 2016/17 pre-season fixtures
"And we had the problem that 80 per cent of our passing game was absolutely OK, 20 per cent not.
"And this 20 per cent, most of the time, was the last pass. The last pass is a very important pass.
"So we had a long way to go back to defend and not create real chances.
"We had to run a lot to avoid this. We had to play football and we had more ball possession against a really good side.
"We could have scored, we didn’t – 1-0, that’s what we have to accept."
