Jurgen Klopp believes Liverpool’s cut-throat end to the season is the perfect preparation for their latest tilt at Champions League glory. The Reds take on Real Madrid in Paris on Saturday aiming to complete a cup treble and secure the club’s seventh European Cup.
Jurgen Klopp said: “I didn’t like the game on Sunday too much, but I like it now. Since January we play only finals. We never looked impressed by the situation, there was not a nervous start in the finals – the opposite in fact, we played our best first half against Manchester City ever (in the FA Cup semi-final), we played our best half an hour against Chelsea ever in the finals (in the FA Cup final) – and this was all fine. Now on Sunday we start with a goal where they hit us by surprise, a long ball, over the head, cross, goal. You could see it, wow, it’s now different. It’s great that it happened this weekend. We could turn it, we won the game and that’s all fine, but we were never 100% ourselves, without being completely confused or nervous, it was just not exactly like we have played in the last few weeks and months. That’s good, because this game at the weekend will not be perfect for either team, definitely not, and we still have to be ourselves. The only thing we will face are football problems and football problems always for us will be sorted by football and that’s what we have to make sure we are ready for. That’s why we don’t have to make any special things now, we just have to keep the boys going with the right information, and from there we go.”
And when asked if he will tell his players they need the best game of their lives to win at the Stade de France,
Jurgen Klopp said: “No, I think we should now be on a different level. Do we just trust our football? Absolutely.”
