JURGEN KLOPP SAYS Liverpool’s Premier League clash with Chelsea is the biggest game of his career, as it comes before the Champions League final against Real Madrid.
The Reds travel to Stamford Bridge on Sunday just four days on from the second leg of their European semi-final tie with Roma, which they won 7-6 on aggregate despite a 4-2 loss in Italy.
It is the first final in the competition Klopp has reached since he took Borussia Dortmund to a Wembley showdown with Bayern Munich in 2013, which he lost 2-1.
However, with Liverpool’s top-four hopes resting on positive results against Chelsea and Brighton and Hove Albion in their last two league games of the season, Klopp is not thinking about facing Madrid just yet.
“I’d love to change that but the most important game in my career is the Chelsea game on Sunday,” he told a news conference. “That’s how it is. And then Brighton could be very important as well.
“It will be a very important one, for sure, but we had a few important ones already, not only here. I had them in Dortmund and some very important games with Mainz.”
Reflecting on that Dortmund defeat to Bayern five years ago, he added: “We’ll give the game the right size when we play it. I’m really not in a Champions League final mood, obviously, but I will have a look at what I did in the years before and change everything!”
A win this weekend will guarantee Liverpool’s place in the top four and a return to next season’s Champions League, regardless of the result in the final in Kiev.
Klopp admits it is important to be in the competition in order to help to sign priority transfer targets for next term.
“There is a financial thing but we want to be there, to play the best teams in Europe,” he said. “It’s the biggest club competition and we want to be part of it. If you cannot be champion, you want to qualify for the Champions League and we worked really hard the last two years for it.
“We battle and challenge with the best football clubs in the world and whatever you can do to be in a better position to get these players, you should do it. In the moment, we’re quite attractive, we pay good wages, transfer fees absolutely okay so we can go for a few really good players, but you can imagine other teams are interested as well.
“If you’re qualified for the Champions League, it’s easier to convince players. That’s clear.”
Klopp also ruled out the prospect of resting any players against Antonio Conte’s side in order to save them for the Madrid meeting.
“No, not possible,” he said. “I see two semis again, against Chelsea and Brighton, very important, no chance to think about anything else.
“Of course, it’s an advantage for Chelsea not playing in midweek, but we had a big success, even if we lost the game.
“We need to be ready for Chelsea and it could be the same intensity to Rome. Chelsea need to win and we want to. We can make life easier for us if we get a result, but it was always a difficult place [to come]. We try everything to be 100 per cent ready for that game.”
The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!
The difference in being placed in pot 2 to pot 3 is huge.
Obliviously one is called pot two the other pot three.cant get anymore different than that
*Obviously
Damn auto correct!!
Main point being that nearly all the teams in pot 3 are better than us. How the hell did we rank above them?
@Fin Tastic. These qualifiers are based on previous Euro qualifying campaigns. Generally we have a better record than the teams in pot 3 for the Euros. Qualifying for 2012 has made the biggest difference here.
How Ireland are a pot 2 team is beyond me.most of the Pot 3 teams are far better than ireland.
It’s 40% based on the 2014 World Cup qualifiers, 40% based on the entire euro 2012 campaign (including the finals) and 20% based on the 2010 World Cup campaign (also including the finals). You get bonus points for playing in playoffs and for making the finals, so both the France playoff in 2009, the Estonia one in 2011 and the finals appearance in 2012 earned us bonus points. That’s why we’re second seeds.
Bad news is FIFA use a totally different system and things are so bad we could be fifth seeds for the 2018 World Cup qualifiers if we don’t buck up our act.
@Finn Maccul ehh no, most of pot 3 are not etter than us, two are, perhaps three.
“better”
… because Romania lost their play-off and that kept us in pot 2 by the skin of our teeth.
Some of the pot 4 teams would give us a run for our money home and away in a qualifying group!
Spot on Mick . If we’re going to be honest about this we belong in Pot 4. It’s all part of the painful process of recognizing the problem before the healing begins. It should come as no surprise to anyone if we do not qualify .
Agree, Gerry. But I’m a little more hopful this time around. All the Trap stuff aside – with anyone managing – we were always going to be fighting for third or fourth place with Austria once Germany and Sweden came out in the World Cup qualifying group.
My hope is that the new management team instill some vigour and edge on the players and we get a kind draw – then we have a decent chance under the new expanded system of qualification.
But you are right, at best, we are really a fourth tier seeded nation.
The seedings are always messed up between FIFA and UEFA, just look where Iceland are!
Got my fingers crossed for:
Greece
Us
Norway
Latvia
Moldova
Gibraltar
About as do-able a group as we can get. COYBIG!
Would love an away trip to Gibraltar.
You’d actually be going to Portugal as the Gibraltar national stadium has to be rebuilt or improved to meet UEFA guidelines. Close enough I guess :P
Expect:
Spain
us
Turkey
Poland
Iceland
Kazakhstan
I think gibraltar are in with a good shout of winning it.They’ve come a long way in the last 3 months and have some top quality players.I’ll be throwing a few hundred on them anyway!
I don’t know, I’m putting my yearly wages up for a Liechtenstein vs San Marino EURO final.
Their defence is a rock
The odds look good for us- 23 out of 53 teams qualify- 1st and 2nd in every group automatically qualify and even after that there are still 5 places up for grabs through best runner up and playoffs. Fingers crossed
If we don’t qualify we need to stop playing football!
Need to stop laying foreign games and sending our hard earned cash to England to pay woman abusing drug addict Wendy ball players.
Says the guy sporting a Celtic Jersey.
Whoa, Gibraltar are now in UEFA? That’s news to me.
Fingers crossed for years lads…
We’re going to win the euros!
I don’t know, whole of Europe is gone to pot.
I wouldn’t like to be in the same group as the North.
Ideal group…
Bosnia,
Ireland,
Slovakia,
Estonia,
N. Ireland,
San Marino
Won’t make euro 16 anyway pot 1 or pot 5 makes no difference.
Euro 16 or Hill 16.
Better not say anymore I might get bitten
Would love to draw Northern Ireland. They’re even more useless than we are. Didn’t they lose recently to the mighty Luxembourg?
Maybe they are but anything can happen in a derby.
Maybe a derby game with two teams in the same league. But we are miles better than them with better players. We hammered the Nordies 5-0 in the Carling Nations Cup.
The best outcome might be (something of a Euro-Eastern adventure):
Bosnia
Ireland
Montenegro
Belarus
Georgia
San Marino
The nightmare might be:
Spain
Ireland
Serbia
Poland
Iceland
Kazakhstan
There should be an alternative Euro’s between Luxembourg, Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein, Faroe Islands, Malta, Andorra, San Marino & Gibraltar.
….who’s your money on?