Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp hopes his team has recovered in time to take revenge on Real Madrid ahead of their first-leg Champions League final showdown.
Real Madrid won the last edition of the Champions League, for the 14th time in their history, at the Stade de France last year, notably with a 1-0 victory over Liverpool, so the latter could not avenge your defeat. in the final of the competition in 2018, when the royal also got 1-3.
But Liverpool are far from their level last season, which has seen them challenge for a historic four and are currently eighth, 19 points behind leaders Arsenal in the English Premier League.
But back-to-back victories over Everton and Newcastle, after a string of disappointing results, have revived hopes for Liverpool fans to compete for Champions League qualification, and they are currently eighth, seven points behind fourth.
“This is the Champions League, it’s one of the biggest matches in the world. It’s going to be a high class match and I’m very happy that we can play it now,” Klopp said on Monday ahead of his team’s match. Real Madrid clash at Anfield, tomorrow, Tuesday.
He continued: “If it had been four weeks ago, things would have been a little different, but life is about timing and we may have found our form just in time for this match. We have achieved these two results and hope to build on them, but we need to play two perfect matches to qualify.”
Liverpool have been looking to get rid of the Real Madrid complex in recent years: in addition to two final matches, the Royals knocked him out of the quarter-finals of the continental championship in the 2020-2021 season (0-0 and 3-1). ).
And in last year’s final, Liverpool were the best participant in the match, and it was the Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, who was recognized as the man of the match, who led Real Madrid to glory.
Klopp admitted on Monday: “We played that final in Paris and I never saw it until last weekend. Now I know why I didn’t watch it before, it was torture because we had a good match and we were able to win.”
“They scored the decisive goal, not us, that’s the reason. In this match you can see how experienced Real Madrid is, how reliable they are when the other team creates chances.”
“Don’t lose faith for a second, that’s something you can learn from them.”
Source: AFP.
