MADRID, 2 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Liverpool coach Jürgen Klopp has recalled that they are only “in the middle” of the Champions League semi-final tie against Villarreal and that they should not be overconfident after the 2-0 win at Anfield, in addition to warning of that they are going to “suffer” this Tuesday in the second leg at La Cerámica.
“If I was younger, I would have been very angry with the question,” he responded to the question of whether the tie was resolved. “Of course not, we are only in the middle. We have to go there and try to win, knowing that they will go with everything they have. It is a semi-final, it will be difficult, we never expected it to be easy. We played a good game at home and we also need to play a good one away. We are going to have to suffer, that is clear”, he warned.
In this sense, he appealed to maintain concentration to try to tie his classification in the Estadio de la Cerámica. “We have an excellent team, but luck is needed, so we better be careful, and we will. If Villarreal beat us, congratulations and that’s it,” he stressed.
“Maturity and experience are important, but they are not the only decisive thing. We have to be prepared to play a ‘top’ game. They will try to play much more of their football than we allowed them in the first game. Unai will surely try to adapt some things. It will be very interesting,” he said.
For this reason, the German coach guaranteed that they will not speculate on the result of the first leg. “We don’t win games by going back and fighting back. We try to be ourselves and we have to do it again. We have to be ready to suffer and defend at times,” he said.
However, he is not worried by the fact that he has not won any of the seven games he has played in Spain as coach. “But we went through the round against Malaga, against Madrid… We may not have won, but we overcome them from time to time. How many times have Spanish teams left me out? I don’t believe in that kind of thing,” he warned.
Regarding the fact of being mathematically classified for the next edition of the ‘Champions’, he assured that it is “a great achievement”. “It helps us to know that we are in the best physical shape possible,” he said. “We must have done something right in the last few months. The problem is that now everything is perfect, but in the next game we start on the wrong foot and it will be different. We know we are in a good moment. But why should we think about the past? Let’s say that Villarreal have the first shot on goal, the fans scream, they win duels… A good example is Newcastle, a game in which the fans were very intense, but we never let it happen,” he said.
Finally, regarding the physical condition of his players, he explained that Roberto Firmino will travel with the team but will not be able to play, while men like Tsimikas, Jones and Origi have recovered in time from a stomach virus.