KLOPP: NEVER GIVE CUP
Jurgen wants to invoke spirit of Barcelona miracle saying: If we fail... let’s fail beautifully
JURGEN KLOPP has evoked memories of Liverpool’s famous Barcelona comeback by telling his players to “fail in a most-beautiful way” if they cannot complete their mission impossible tonight.
Liverpool trail Atalanta 3-0 following last week’s horror show at Anfield and the Reds have never won a European tie after losing the first leg at home.
They famously beat Barcelona 4-0 at Anfield in the Champions League semi-final in May 2019 after losing 3-0 (celebrating, above), and Klopp will send his players out tonight with the same words.
“I remember that I said, ‘If we fail, then let’s fail in a most-beautiful way’, and that’s how I see it again,” said the Liverpool boss.
“We want to win the game and if we want to win the game, we had better play good. If we play good, then we will have a chance to win it and we will see. I said after the game, everybody in the stadium at Liverpool, the Liverpool supporters and Atalanta supporters thought that’s it.
“Now, a week later, I don’t think everyone thinks it’s already decided. We’re here and we can be good. We can be not so good as well so let’s see what we put on the pitch tomorrow.”
Klopp talked down the similarities with Barcelona five years ago, and crucially Liverpool are away.
“What’s similar?” he said. “The result definitely. The performance not really. We played at Barcelona and they were exceptional, but we lost 3-0 and no one knew how. We lost at home and now we’re away so that’s a massive difference. It’s not about comparing.”
Liverpool have a glimmer of hope and they won 5-0 here on their last visit in November 2020 when Diogo Jota bagged a hat-trick in the behind-closed-doors Champions League game.
Atalanta are not one of Europe’s heavyweights and they are sixth in Serie A, having won just three of their last 11 games.
Alisson played in that incredible win over Barca, but the Brazil keeper (below) was at pains to play down comparisons with the
Catalans and is more concerned the Reds get back to keeping clean sheets after just three in 19 games.
He said. “There are more differences than similarities. It’s a completely different situation and we have to deal with it.
“We did great things in the past and great things in the history of football.
“Teams have overcome bad results and turned it around to qualify for the next round.
“We have to believe in ourselves. We come here with the goal to improve our performance, try and play better and try to avoid mistakes.
“Losing 3-0 at home is something we cannot accept as Liverpool players. We have to improve our performances.
“We have to go back to keeping clean sheets and scoring the clear chances we have in front of goal.
“I trust my strikers and defenders. If we do that as a team, we can go back to winning games.”