Jurgen Klopp: 'The Tie is Over but Maybe Not in Three Weeks'

Karim Benzema scored a second-half brace for Real Madrid to seal a historic 5-2 victory over Liverpool.

Liverpool were stunned by Real Madrid at Anfield on Tuesday night. Head coach Jurgen Klopp feels that his side’s Champions League dreams are now over after Los Blancos came from two goals down to score five in the first leg of their last-16 tie.

The Reds had led by two goals on Tuesday night, courtesy of Drawin Nunez and Mohammed Salah, but uncharacteristically succumbed to a five-goal masterpiece from Karim Benzema, Vinicius Junior and Militao.

“It is really not even in my mind. We go there, I can say it now already, and try to win the game. If that is possible or not, I don’t know now but that’s what we will try and from there we will see,” a positive Klopp said in a post-match interview

“It’s how it is in these moments, the closer you get to the game the bigger our chances become and the less likely it is the tie is over.”

The 55-year-old also insisted the 2018-19 champions had a bright start to the first half but were indisciplined at the back and got punished for it

“The start to the game, in our situation where we are, it is really important that we see positive steps – and I think the first half was, besides the two goals we conceded, the best we’ve played for probably the whole season,” he said.

“I liked it a lot. OK, the second goal, we cannot defend better because it is a slapstick [moment], but it equalled pretty much the second goal that we scored. The first goal we conceded we have to defend better.”

On whether he was concerned about what this result may do to the confidence of his players, Klopp stated he wanted his boys not to dwell on the result but learn from the errors made on the night

“I can see that people think that, understandable, but that’s actually not allowed. So, I told the boys directly after the game, there are different things that happened tonight, and this was a result that was the exact opposite of what we wanted.,” he added.

“We have a few days and we will make sure we take the right things out of this game. Yes, we have to improve, third goal massively, first goal massively, but we have to take the good things as well – that would be horrible if we don’t do that.”

Karim Benzema scored a second-half brace for Real Madrid to seal a historic 5-2 victory over Liverpool.

Liverpool were stunned by Real Madrid at Anfield on Tuesday night. Head coach Jurgen Klopp feels that his side’s Champions League dreams are now over after Los Blancos came from two goals down to score five in the first leg of their last-16 tie.

The Reds had led by two goals on Tuesday night, courtesy of Drawin Nunez and Mohammed Salah, but uncharacteristically succumbed to a five-goal masterpiece from Karim Benzema, Vinicius Junior and Militao.

“It is really not even in my mind. We go there, I can say it now already, and try to win the game. If that is possible or not, I don’t know now but that’s what we will try and from there we will see,” a positive Klopp said in a post-match interview

“It’s how it is in these moments, the closer you get to the game the bigger our chances become and the less likely it is the tie is over.”

The 55-year-old also insisted the 2018-19 champions had a bright start to the first half but were indisciplined at the back and got punished for it

“The start to the game, in our situation where we are, it is really important that we see positive steps – and I think the first half was, besides the two goals we conceded, the best we’ve played for probably the whole season,” he said.

“I liked it a lot. OK, the second goal, we cannot defend better because it is a slapstick [moment], but it equalled pretty much the second goal that we scored. The first goal we conceded we have to defend better.”

On whether he was concerned about what this result may do to the confidence of his players, Klopp stated he wanted his boys not to dwell on the result but learn from the errors made on the night

“I can see that people think that, understandable, but that’s actually not allowed. So, I told the boys directly after the game, there are different things that happened tonight, and this was a result that was the exact opposite of what we wanted.,” he added.

“We have a few days and we will make sure we take the right things out of this game. Yes, we have to improve, third goal massively, first goal massively, but we have to take the good things as well – that would be horrible if we don’t do that.”

February 22, 2023