Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp hopes that his team will have regained its form in time to take revenge on Real Madrid, on the eve of the confrontation between them at Anfield in the first leg of the Champions League final, in a replay of last year’s final.
Real Madrid was crowned champion for the fourteenth time in its history at the Stade de France last year, with a 1-0 victory over its English rivals.
But Liverpool is far from its level last season, which led it to compete for a historic quadruple, and currently ranks eighth, 19 points behind leaders Arsenal in the league.
But two consecutive victories over Everton and hovering Newcastle, after a series of disastrous results, have restored hopes to the club’s supporters to compete for the qualifying places for the Champions League, and it currently occupies eighth place, 7 away from the fourth, and has played two fewer matches.
Klopp said, Monday, on the sidelines of the match: “It is the Champions League, it is one of the biggest matches in the world. It will be a high-class match and I am very happy that we can play it now.”
He continued, “If it were 4 weeks ago, it would have been a little different, but life is about timing and we may have found our form in time for this match. We achieved these two results and we hope to build on them, but we have to play two perfect matches to qualify.”
Liverpool is eager to get rid of the Real complex in recent years. In addition to the two final matches, the Royals eliminated it from the quarter-finals of the continental championship in the 2020-2021 season (0-0 and 3-1).
In last year’s final, Liverpool were the best side in the game and it was Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, who was named man of the match, who led his team to glory.
Klopp admitted: “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 played a good game and we were able to win.”
“They scored a decisive goal, we didn’t, that was the reason. You can see in this match how experienced Real Madrid are, how solid they are”.
“Don’t lose faith for a second, that’s what you can learn from them.”
