June 1, 2019 will live long in the memory for everyone connected with Liverpool Football Club. The Reds secured their sixth European Cup with a 2-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur, thanks to a goal in each half from Mohamed Salah and Divock Origi. It was the first major trophy that Liverpool won under manager Jurgen Klopp, having previously lost in three finals prior to that special night in Madrid. Klopp was reliving the final as part of a BT Sport watchalong, and during the match he was asked a series of questions about the game, what he felt after the final whistle, and the celebrations that followed.
On the win and lifting the trophy
Jurgen Klopp said “It was one of the greatest nights of my life. The immediate first feeling after the game was relief – 100%. I felt for Mauricio, I immediately went up to him to give him a hug. It was a strange situation between being happy and feeling for another person because I knew exactly how he felt. I knew that reaching the final was big but perhaps without winning it, it’s not quite the same. It was a very, very special moment.”
On a private celebration with family
Jurgen Klopp said“For 20 years they have been with me. I have forgotten the number but five or six finals I’ve lost as a manager. One of the things I have to accept is that we can lose games. For my family, it’s difficult for them. They’re really involved, they celebrated the Barcelona game. I remember when we lost 3-0 to Barcelona, and they were really down. I was in a good mood, actually, because we played well. But they were really down because for them it’s all about winning, but for me, it’s also about performance as well. It means the world to them. For my wife, for my two boys, my sister, my mother and it was so big as you can imagine.”
The one memory that stands out a year on
Jurgen Klopp said “The wonderful Divock Origi goal. It was not our best game, it was not the best game of Tottenham. It was a final, we had to learn that as a team that we needed to win these kind of average games. We needed to accept that if we do not perform at our best, then we need to do other things to win. When Divock scored the goal, I knew on the night that it was enough so we would win. That was my biggest memory. It was job done, and I really loved it.”
On Salah’s goal and his injury in 2018
Jurgen Klopp said “It was incredible. Would I want to be him having to take a penalty in a final? I’m not sure. These boys want to be in the middle of the interest and he’s proved so often that he’s made for these types of games. I was really happy for him because it was a tragic story the year before and we all know what happened there. There were so many difficult moments in that season for the boys. We lost 3-0 in Barcelona when he had a really big chance to make it 3-1. It was that moment where he hit the post then he could not play the second game and you could see his relief after we’d beaten Barcelona.”
On recovering from Premier League blow
Jurgen Klopp said “In the season, we got 97 points and we didn’t get that many points with constantly brilliant football. The boys played a lot of brilliant football but we got used to the fact that we had to win some games whilst not playing this football. I knew that in that part, we were more experienced than Tottenham. I was not worried about my players.”
On “Champions of Europe: 6” framed shirt behind Klopp
Jurgen Klopp said “I had a lot of things from that day, to be honest. This was a present that I got. I usually don’t collect these things. I have a big picture of the parade, which was incredible. It was a special night and we took a few things to make sure we never, never forget it because it was so special.”
