Now Jurgen Klopp is looking ahead to the return leg next Thursday as his side attempts to overturn the first-leg deficit. So, for myself, all I can do every weekend is go out there, perform to the best of my abilities. “Villarreal are a good side but Liverpool are a good side too”, he said. If my players are hungry tomorrow too then it’s good for the game. Everyone knows it and it should not happen.
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Sturridge was a shock omission from Jurgen Klopp’s starting line-up on Thursday night and his manager chose to bring on Christian Benteke over the England worldwide in the 90th minute. Maybe the youth (inexperience) came through.
“In a lot of parts of the performance we did really well”.
But it was possible the league wanted no game to compete with Leicester City’s bid for their first ever title when they face Manchester United starting at 2 p.m. on Sunday. “My first thinking when everybody was celebrating around me was ‘sorry, but it’s not over- you have to come to Anfield too.’ We will be ready”, said Klopp while showing no signs of nervousness or disappointment. This left Klopp surprisingly ungracious.
Villarreal manager Marcelino felt his side deserved the win, despite it being an evenly-balanced and often mundane game. It [the substitution] was not really for attacking.
Jurgen Klopp has insisted he has no regrets at leaving the England striker on the bench – and admits he would be willing to do it again if he felt it would benefit Liverpool.
“I thought about a lot of things and at the end I decided for a little bit more stability”, said the former Dortmund trainer.
Only a fortnight ago, Klopp’s players thrilled the fans at Anfield with their stunning comeback against Borussia Dortmund when Dejan Lovren struck an injury-time victor to take them through against the German manager’s former side.
“I think we know how intensive the game will be and we have to think about this and not the result”.
“We need to be clever in defending as they have a 1-0”.
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“I am pretty sure no one slept immediately when we got home”, he added. “We will have chances and if we score early it will be a different game”.
