Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp sums up view on Real Madrid thrashing with frank four-word response
After Tuesday’s Champions League loss to Real Madrid, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp expressed a negative outlook, acknowledging that his team has a very unlikely chance of reversing their last-16 tie after a 5-2 defeat at Anfield.
Liverpool’s aspirations of winning a seventh European Cup were shattered on a night that had initially looked promising. Despite taking a 2-0 lead, things took a turn for the worse for Klopp’s team as Real Madrid equalized before half-time, and then dominated the second half. As a result, Klopp is not very optimistic about the chances of his team turning the tie around at the Bernabeu.
“We will go there,” a downbeat Klopp told BT Sport. “We will play a football game. It’s not the best start and the best basis for it, we didn’t create that tonight.
“Obviously everyone saw tonight how good they are on the counter-attack if we have to score goals there. In their own stadium, each single counter-attack can be the decider.
“So it will be a massive challenge but there’s time, until then we have to play in the Premier League, we have to recover and make sure we take the right things from this game and the rest we have to learn from as well.”
Liverpool got off to a great start, taking a 2-0 lead within the first 14 minutes with a goal from Darwin Nunez and another from Mohamed Salah, who took advantage of a mistake by Real Madrid’s goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.
However, Real Madrid managed to level the score before half-time, thanks to two goals from Vinicius Junior.
The Brazilian scored a well-executed strike to make it 2-1, and then Liverpool’s goalkeeper Alisson made a major error in attempting to clear the ball, causing it to rebound off his Brazilian teammate and into the net.
Liverpool started the game strongly, scoring two goals within the first 14 minutes. Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah were the scorers. However, Real Madrid fought back and scored two goals before half-time through Vinicius Junior, and Liverpool’s goalkeeper Alisson Becker conceded an own goal.
In the second half, Eder Militao scored with a header after Joe Gomez committed a needless foul, and Karim Benzema scored two more goals to complete Real Madrid’s impressive comeback. Klopp acknowledged Liverpool’s strong start and attacking play, but admitted that their defending was not good enough to prevent Real Madrid’s victory.
He said: “The beginning was outstanding. It was us in a nutshell. It was perfect, exactly how we wanted to play. The whole first half was good besides the goals.
“The first goal we became slightly passive higher up the pitch, we weren’t chasing them. The second goal is slapstick. It shouldn’t happen, can happen, 2-2.
“The first situation pretty much [after the break] they played a long ball to Vinicius. Not sure if it’s a foul. How we defend that is not OK. Then 3-2 and that doesn’t help against a team who are outstanding on the counter-attack.”
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp sums up view on Real Madrid thrashing with frank four-word response
