Liverpool vs. Leipzig – Klopp celebrates a major win against RB: “The best performance was …”

Jurgen Klopp paused for a moment, then tipped his head forward. “It seems so,” said the Liverpool manager when asked if his team will simply have two faces in 2021.

The question, of course, related to the different results in the Premier League and the Champions League: in the domestic league, Liverpool had recently moved up to eighth place with six losses in a row at home.

In the premier class, on the other hand, the Reds celebrated a major 2-0 “home win” against RB Leipzig in the second leg of the return leg in Budapest on Wednesday and, after 2-0 in the match one way, they succeeded. until the quarterfinals.

“We played well, we defended very well against a really good opponent”, Klopp said in “Sky” after the goals of Mohamed Salah (70th) and Sadio Mané (74th) and analyzed: “The best performance we did that not you. I have really seen how strong Leipzig can be. You know what kind of powerhouse it can be. “

Liverpool does not allow much against Leipzig

In fact, Liverpool didn’t let RB develop in the second leg either. The Reds approved three chances for Dani Olmo (10th), Emil Forsberg (32nd) and Alexander Sörloth (65th), who headed the crossbar. On the other hand, he should have taken the lead in the first half, for example, when Mané and Salah had a double chance (24th).

“Liverpool 2021 is also that you have huge things in the first half and you don’t use any of them,” Klopp said with scathing humor: “But today we just go ahead and control the game, which is not a given.”

An attitude that he would also like from his players in the League: “If we had always played with such discipline, we would have had one or two more points.”

Klopp secretly dreams of the title

“We had to be very physical in our own possession and we took a certain risk. We were really strong. And if we had to, we hit a ball behind the back line,” said the Reds coach, who of course secretly dreams of repeating. the 2019 title win, because that’s also how you could qualify for next year’s Champions League season:

“It goes as far as it can. We have already discovered it ourselves. There are no limits for us. But neither do we leave the stadium with our whole body and say: now we are all leaving.

Nagelsmann’s disappointment

Especially since Liverpool have to play the situation until the end. Center-backs Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez and Joel Matip are not expected to return before the end of the season. According to Klopp, captain Jordan Henderson could only be used in the Champions League final at the earliest. “Nobody comes back with us. These are the guys we are going through now,” said the coach.

Meanwhile, there was disappointment in Leipzig. “We weren’t good enough, we didn’t develop the necessary punch,” coach Julian Nagelsmann had to admit: “We played too much early on and barely got into our emotional playing style. We didn’t develop the proper courage. At first, maybe I played. too mentally. That way we can’t develop the right faith. With the 2-0 win, the game is over. “

As in the first leg, Leipzig had made too many mistakes in counter protection.

Nagelsmann congratulates Klopp

“They changed incredibly well and quickly punished us with two goals,” said Emil Forsberg. “Their counterattack is probably one of the best in Europe,” said goalkeeper Peter Gulasci.

Nagelsmann gladly congratulated his counterpart. “If the opponent is better, I would also like to congratulate him,” the 33-year-old said of the exchange with Klopp after the game. RB’s coach revealed that the game scenes were no longer the subject of a brief conversation after the final whistle.

Rather, they talked about the Premier League’s wild game plans. “I was interested in how they do it with stress management,” Nagelsmann said, eager to learn.

For Klopp, however, it is to be expected that his team will not show its second face again next Monday in the league against Wolverhampton Wanderers.