The manager of Liverpool football club, Jurgen Klopp has stressed that he did not lead Liverpool to Spain to seek revenge but to play against Real Madrid to get to the next round of the Champions League.
Liverpool and Real Madrid are meeting in the UEFA Champions League for the first time since they met in the final of the competition in 2018. Madrid beat Liverpool 3-1 to claim the Champions League title after a heated battle.
One of the antics that happened in the game which changed the outcome of the match was the shoulder injury Liverpool’s talisman Mohamed Salah sustained in the game, thanks to a controversial tackle from Real Madrid’s Sergio Ramos.
Liverpool left Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine where the UEFA Champions League final took place in 2018 without the title and most fans of the Premier League club believe that the injury Salah sustained through Ramos’ tackle made it a difficult night for Liverpool.
After almost three years, Liverpool will go head to head with Real Madrid in the city of Madrid for the first leg of the UEFA Champions League quarter-final round. The Premier League club is expected to do what Manchester City did to the Spanish giants last season where the Premier League club knocked out the Spanish giants in the knock-out stage of the competition.
But most football pundits believe that Real Madrid are the favorite to win the tie due to the inconsistent form of Liverpool which has pushed them out of the top four in the Premier League.
Ahead of the Champions League quarter-final game, Jurgen Klopp stressed that Real Madrid are used to being favorites ahead of games and Liverpool are used to being the challengers.
“My motivation is at the highest level, we play Real Madrid in the Champions League to get to the next round, it’s not because of 2018,” Jurgen Klopp said.
“But when we get the draw and I see we face them for the first time since then, of course, I remember the game. I said it at the time if someone asked me a week after the game if I would invite Sergio Ramos to my birthday, I would say no. Meanwhile, I would think about it again now.
“I did not like what happened that night, it was a strange night, but it was long ago. I cannot get that feeling back, that anger or whatever, so I don’t even try.
“We are not on a revenge tour here. Life is like this, you try everything to win a game, you lose it, and then you meet your opponent again one day.
“Sometimes it’s close enough and you can meet a week or two later and have this kind of emotion still in you.
“I don’t believe too much in revenge but it would be nice to get through against Real Madrid because that would mean we are in the next round and that’s what we actually want to do…
“I heard outside already everybody says Real Madrid is favorite. Great, no problem at all with that. They are used to the role and we have no problem with the role of the challenger.
“We want to give it a proper try. We know we were really good that night but 25 minutes being really good in a final, was never enough. But it was a different time, we were in a different place, a lot of things have happened.”
After the tie that will take place in Madrid at 20:00 today, April 6, Real Madrid will visit the Anfield Stadium for the return leg of the tie on April 14 at 20:00. The club that comes out top after the double-headed encounter would qualify for the semi-final of the European club competition.
💫 𝗘𝗨𝗥𝗢𝗣𝗘𝗔𝗡 𝗥𝗢𝗬𝗔𝗟𝗧𝗬 💫
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) April 6, 2021
We meet again… #RMALIV | #UCL pic.twitter.com/dv7cQfImRk
