After suffering a 1-0 defeat to Atletico Madrid in their first leg of their Champions League, Jurgen Klopp said there is only one factor that can make Liverpool come out on top. The Reds boss has called on fans of the club to help produce another magical night for the Reds at Anfield. The Reds got off to a shaky start, resulting in Saul Niguez scoring a goal after four minutes at the Wanda Metropolitano stadium. The Premier League leaders were left with a low blow the lone goal from Atletico Madrid and they look to turn things around in the second leg match that will hold in three weeks.
Anfield has been the host of many famous European nights. The greatest can arguably be debated as last season match when Liverpool overturned a 3-0 deficit against Messi and his squad in the semi-finals. Jurgen Klopp believes Atletico’s crowd played a huge role in setting the tone for Simeone men in the Spanish capital. Jurgen is now calling on all Reds fans to produce the same energy when they meet in Anfield.
The German said: “The crowd wanted to help their team tonight. That makes it a very emotional game. Emotions are important. Tonight they were obviously completely on the side of Atletico but I am really looking forward to the second leg. We speak from time to time about the power of Anfield and the power a stadium can have, tonight you saw that.”
“It’s half-time and we are 1-0 down. Why should we give up? Even better, the second half will be in a different stadium, our stadium, that will be different and Atletico will feel that, and that’s what we are looking forward to” the German boss added.
The Reds who are currently unbeaten in the Premier League with 25 games won and 1 drawn, were made to pay the price for their sloppiness. Atletico after scoring resulted in sitting back the rest of the game while Liverpool fought hard but failed to find the back of the net. The defensive tactics played by Atletico didn’t seem to bother Klopp much, but one could tell that Klopp and his boys became increasingly irritated by Atletico’s time-wasting and other acts of gamesmanship.
Klopp also spoke on why Sadio Mane was removed from the game.
He said: “Obviously the plan was to get Sadio out of the game with a yellow card. I was afraid his opponent would go down even if Sadio takes a deep breath or whatever, so I didn’t want to have that situation. That’s why we took him off. It was difficult for the referee to deal with the atmosphere but after 30 minutes three Atletico players were already on the ground without being injured. The ref just needs to feel that game a little bit more.”
Jordan Henderson left the pitch ten months from time, with a hamstring injury and would have to be assessed.
