Liverpool qualify for 8th Champions League Final
AS Roma 4-2 Liverpool (6-7 on aggregate). We saw thirteen goals between AS Roma and Liverpool FC, the most ever in the Champions League under the home-and-away format. Liverpool had to suffer until the last minute after AS Roma came back from 2-1 down to lead 4-2 in the last minute of the game. Another great night of European football.
Now Liverpool have to get ready for the League and a tough matchup in London against Chelsea. Coach Klopp will have to carefully prepare his team for the match while making sure the fitness is optimum to prepare Champions League Final against Real Madrid at the end of May. He commented:
On the recovery:
“You saw it is quite difficult. We will see.We have to wait. We trained [on Thursday morning] and the boys who played [on Wednesday night] had their recovery. We’ll come together [on Friday] – I can’t make any decisions before that. We have to wait and see. But it’s difficult, the whole situation is not too easy.”
I really think that the whole situation in the club is a really good moment. Yes, I think we are little bit in this direction [closing the gap on Europe’s top clubs] but we are not responsible for the rest. We don’t have an influence on other teams so we don’t think too much about it.”
on reaching Champions League Final
“But it’s important for us – for bringing new players, for keeping our players – that we really show that and make it clear that that’s our direction. For that, of course it helps massively if you have this obvious sign: being in the Champions League final.
If you don’t win it then nobody will talk about it. But in not even three years we are now in a third final, that’s not bad. Of course we are here to win things but the only way to win things is to go to the final. If you don’t go there, there’s no chance. We are there and it’s just amazing. I don’t have the right words for it, to be honest.
When I saw the boys in the dressing room and going out again and I saw the people out there, then I really got it. Since then, it didn’t feel worse! It feels good. When we started the season and started the project, I don’t think that you can plan a Champions League final so we didn’t. But the boys made it possible and made it happen. It’s really cool.
I know the Champions League final is rare if you are not in this moment Real Madrid, Barcelona or Bayern. I feel the exceptional [nature] of the situation. It’s really nice, I’m really happy,” the German added.
I saw the game and I was not anxious, to be honest. I saw everything and it was clear they had chances but they scored really late. We didn’t play well; we didn’t play as well as we did over the Champions League season. But I was still not anxious – I really felt during the game that it would happen. It was really cool and really special.”
