Jurgen Klopp has expressed his pride at Liverpool’s perfect Champions League record – as he revealed why Nat Phillips became the talk of the dressing room after the win over AC Milan. With top spot in Group B already assured, Liverpool made eight changes from the side that won at Wolverhampton Wanderers but still had far too much for Milan, who finished bottom with Atletico Madrid winning 3-1 at Porto to take second. And of the Reds taking 18 points from 18,
Jurgen Klopp said: “I’m very proud of this achievement. When I said before the game that we chose a line-up because we wanted to win the game, everybody was like ‘hmm’. Well we needed today fresh legs, we needed desire to play this game which was really difficult in this hectic schedule – we have to always be on fire for the next game. What the boys did tonight I couldn’t be more proud, to be honest. It was an incredible game. I’m so happy about so many things I saw tonight. And of course, that we won the game was great as well but the performance was absolutely outstanding. Having 21 shots at goal, so many situations where we played outstandingly well, we defended with passion and good organisation. So many good things I saw tonight.”
Nat Phillips was handed his first start of the season and responded with an impressive performance, not least when producing a Cruyff turn to wrongfoot two Milan attackers inside his own penalty area in the second half.
Jurgen Klopp joked: “The situation of the game, yeah! He played an outstanding game. Nat with that situation.. I didn’t see it, only from distance. I’m really looking forward to seeing it for the first time! We spoke already in the dressing room about it. It was a tricky one!”
Salah, Sadio Mane and Alisson Becker – who was captain for the night – were the only starters from the weekend to remain in the XI. And Klopp,
Jurgen Klopp explained: “We changed eight players. Ali is a goalie so he could play and wanted to play desperately. It speaks for him. The same for Sadio and Mo. The game they played was absolutely outstanding, the quality they have, the physicality they bring in a game like this and how much they help defensively. Mo scored the first and Sadio sets up the second, that speaks really for the boys. This mix of fresh legs and quality as well was a really good mix tonight.”
