Liverpool paid the ultimate price for a dreadful performance in Madrid, according to Jurgen Klopp, as they tumbled out of the Champions League on Wednesday night.
Though Liverpool created a number of excellent chances, particularly in a brisk opening 20 minutes, Real Madrid – the competition’s grandmasters – were too streetwise and ground out a 0-0 draw at Anfield to set up a semi-final showdown with Chelsea.
Liverpool could take positives from their performance, as they looked more energetic and intense than has been the case during 2021, and it left Klopp bemoan the careless way they slumped to a 3-1 first leg defeat in Madrid as the reason their ambitions in the tournament are over.
Klopp said: ‘We didn’t lose the game (here). We lost it in Madrid. With two good performances we would have had a better chance, I would say. Even if we played there 0-0 we would probably still play as we didn’t score.
‘It was uncomfortable for Madrid. We were good. We were aggressive, we played some really good stuff, had massive chances in the beginning of the game. If we used one of them, it opens up. They had already struggles, it would have increased that.
‘But if and when isn’t interesting because we didn’t score and then with the experience of Real Madrid, they played it down.’
A statistic to show where Liverpool have struggled in the second half of the season shows they have had 139 shots at Anfield in 2021 but only managed to score three goals.
They fizzled out after missing good opportunities in the first period from Mo Salah and Gini Wijnaldum.
The onus is no on Liverpool to qualify for next season’s tournament and Klopp is determined there will not be a hangover during the final seven games. He says they still have much to play for and wants a perfect end to the campaign in terms of results.
Klopp said: ‘It is a little bit ourselves this year – without the finishing because we had ridiculous games here we should have won, not tonight but in the Premier League where we just didn’t finish, many times Mo Salah finish this type of things.
‘We had many situations and we could have created more because the football we made was better.
'We love this competition and it is for different reasons very important for this club. Now we can now concentrate only – unfortunately – on the Premier League but we will.
‘On Monday night Leeds is the next challenge, who are leading on all physical stats in the Premier League. Against Leeds we will have to run our socks off.
'I am naturally confident but that doesn’t mean we will end up (in the Champions League). We don’t have to talk too much about it.
‘If we want that we should play really good football which we did tonight. If we want to go through, we should finish the situations off on top of it. We have to keep going.’
Anas101messi
461
Liverpool fans destroy the window of Real Madrid bus. Real Madrid:-Park the bus on the pitch 😂 🔞
ishti
451
Breaking the windows of the Real Madrid bus was the best ATTACK from Liverpool over the two leg.
Viwcelmnyz
385
jota has been in form until he met a team that changes form. everyone was talking about salah mane fermino jota but only 1 goal for them all in 180 minutes. halah Madrid
BillyDedon
309
The simple fact is that Klopp can only make comebacks against inexperienced coaches who lack so many attributes in big games he took advantage of Valverde because of his lack of experience, he knew if Roma can make a comeback against Valverde Barcelona then Liverpool can also make a comeback against Barcelona with the lack of experience from Ernesto Valverde in the champions league, after Valverde he has failed to make a comeback in 2 successive years against experience coaches. Last season it was Simeone who brought a 1-0 lead to Anfield after ending his long unbeaten in all competitions and ended winning 3-2 in front all they crowd at Anfield, And this season Zidane brought a 3-1 lead to Anfield and kept a clean sheets, Sorry Mr Klopp Zidane is not Valverde.
nuubclosyz
182
That's the problem. Some clueless fans here saying Real Madrid park the bus saying Liverpool played better. Let me educate you. * Firstly, Before the tie, it was 0-0 and that was were each needed to show it's quality, skills, football etc * Real Madrid outclassed Liverpool in every domain in that game which means Real Madrid is obviously the better team * In the 2nd leg, haven't known that we have league match to play, and with the 3 - 1 and ofcouse lots of injuries, Real Madrid decided to slow the game and were so complacent to avoid further injury. * If Madrid lost in the 1st leg, the game would not have be like this, Real would obviously have won the game. It's so terrible Liverpool couldn't even score 1 goal in the home ground but were. shouting Anfield, Anfield and Anfield. Real Madrid are just too good for you
Californiaking
133
Anfield still awaits both Atlectico and Real Madrid [Crylaugh][Crylaugh]