Jurgen Klopp has reiterated the rallying call he gave to his team ahead of the famous second leg comeback against Barcelona in 2019 as Liverpool prepare to overturn another 3-0 deficit against Atalanta in the Europa League quarter-final.
Goals from Gianluca Scamacca (2) and Mario Pasalic at Anfield have given Liverpool a mountain to climb and, unlike previous European comebacks under Klopp, it will have to be done away from home.
“I remember that I said (in 2019): ‘If we fail, then let’s fail in a most beautiful way’ and that’s how I see it again,” said Klopp, who initially joked that he already had a pre-match speech written.
“We want to win the game and if we want to win the game, we had better play good. If we play good, then we will have a chance to win it. After the game (last week), everyone in the stadium thought, ‘That’s it’. But since then, a week later, I don’t think everybody thinks it’s already decided.
“Let’s see what we can put on the pitch tomorrow. But my team meeting will not happen in front of the world in the press conference. If we win, the players will find a reason to tell the world what I said, and if we lose no one will want to hear.”
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Klopp’s side turned around a 3-0 first leg deficit to Barcelona in the 2019 Champions League semi-final, winning 4-0 at Anfield, on the way to lifting the trophy. However, the German admitted there were few similarities his side could draw upon.
“The result definitely,” Klopp said. “The performance, not really. We played at Barcelona and they were exceptional but we lost 3-0 no-one knew how. We lost at home and now we are away so that’s a massive difference.
“It is not about comparing. We are here and will try to win the game tomorrow, that’s all. We will see if that’s possible. A lot of moments we had last week were really good moments and we were unlucky but they won, completely deserved. We didn’t play extremely well. Let’s start with a much better performance and try to win the game and we will see how much time is left at the end.”
Goalkeeper Alisson is one of the few remaining players who were involved in the Barcelona comeback and the goalkeeper echoed Klopp’s thoughts.
The Brazil international returned to the starting eleven against Crystal Palace after recovering from a long term hamstring injury. He could not prevent Liverpool conceding which extended their run without a clean sheet to nine games.
Alisson believes fixing that is crucial to getting performances and results back on track.
“We did in the past great things and great things in the history of football,” he said. “Teams have overcome bad results and turned it around to qualify for the next round. Of course we have to believe in ourselves. The way the opponent played in our home shows their quality. We come here with the goal to improve our performance, try and play better as a team and try to avoid some mistakes. Then we will see how the result will be.
“Two bad results. We cannot make the mistake bigger than it is. Losing 3-0 at home is something we cannot accept as Liverpool players. We have to go back to keep clean sheets and score the clear chances that we have in front of goal. I trust my striker and defenders. If we do that as a team we can go back to winning games.
“This (clean sheets) has to be our goal this season, next season and for the seasons to come. That does not depend only on the defenders. We have to defend together and fight together, winning challenges and blocking shots. This is the basis not only for tomorrow but for the rest.”
Conor Bradley has been ruled out after suffering an ankle injury against Crystal Palace and is expected back at the start of May.
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(Paul Ellis/AFP via Getty Images)
