MADRID – With Liverpool crashing out in the Champions League this morning, Jurgen Klopp is now focusing on finishing top four in the English Premier League.
Liverpool lost 1-0 to Real Madrid in the second leg of the Round of 16 at Santiago Bernabeu, thanks to Karim Benzema’s goal in the 78th minute.
Real Madrid won the tie 6-2 on aggregate after trashing the Kops 5-2 at Anfield earlier this month.
It is evident that this season has been the worst for Liverpool since Klopp took over in 2016. They are out of all the competitions and only have the top four to play for.
Liverpool are six points behind fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspurs in the league with a game in hand.
“Our job is to squeeze absolutely everything out of this season,” Klopp said.
“It’s a strange one. Our game against Manchester United was obviously sensational – which is a really good football team – and then a really bad performance against Bournemouth, which is a good football team as well, but we should not lose this kind of game.
“It put us then under more pressure. If we could have three points, then I think everybody really could have felt or smelled our breath. But (instead) there is a distance again because other teams won their games. It is clear, we want to be in the top four, but if we can do that, we will decide on the pitch, not here in the press conference.
“With the history we have in this competition, we usually start with the idea of winning it, to be honest. We reached the final a few times. We didn’t win the final that often, that’s true, but we were there three times in the last few years. It is the competition and we want to be part of it every year.
“That’s a massive task for us, we all know that,” Klopp added.
“When we come back from the international break we have a proper football week ahead of us, with three games – City, Chelsea, and Arsenal – which will then probably define what we get out of it.
“People might say we lost it in Bournemouth, but I think this week is a pretty decisive one, so we have to hope now the boys come back healthy, early enough, in the right shape and then we will try it.”
Klopp also described Real Madrid’s decision to play You’ll Never Walk Alone at full time as “a really nice gesture”. – Agencies, March 16, 2023
