Klopp has no fear as Liverpool take on City

JURGEN Klopp has no qualms about saluting Pep Guardiola’s ability to create extraordinary teams, but the Liverpool boss is convinced he can bridge the class divide when Manchester City visit Anfield for their Champions League showdown.

Having first gone head to head with Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich, the friendly rivalry between Klopp and Guardiola has its biggest stage yet as Liverpool face City in the Champions League quarterfinal first leg tonight.

Two of Europe’s heavyweight managers, Klopp and Guardiola look destined to compete for the sport’s biggest prizes for years to come.

But there is strong mutual admiration between the bosses, with Klopp unstinting in his praise for Guardiola’s ability to get his players to give life to his purist principles.

“His teams are always excellently positioned. He has great teams which make excellent decisions,” Klopp said.

“At Barcelona it was Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets, Lionel Messi and so on.

“At Bayern Munich he had fantastic players who made a lot of great decisions.

“Now, with Gundogan, Silva, Aguero, Sane on the left wing, Sterling on the wing, Gabriel Jesus, they’re extraordinary.

“When the players are in position they move every millisecond to be available, and when they are, that’s when the individual quality of the player becomes important.”

Likewise, Guardiola is an admirer of Klopp’s commitment to an entertaining style of play.

Last season the Spaniard hailed his counterpart as “the best manager in the world for spectators because he creates teams to attack the back four”.

Despite their ability to thrill the neutrals, Klopp and Guardiola had vastly different paths to tonight’s seismic encounter.

Klopp’s playing career took in stops at unglamorous outposts including Rot-Weiss Frankfurt and Mainz, while Guardiola played for over a decade in the rarified air of Barcelona, where the local boy made good became a Catalan icon.

It was no different when they took their first steps into management.

Klopp learnt his trade in anonymity at Mainz before enjoying a career breakthrough at Dortmund in 2008.

Taking over at Barcelona the same year Klopp arrived at Dortmund, the cerebral Guardiola relished the intellectual aspects of management.

Although Klopp twice won the Bundesliga title with Dortmund, who also finished as Champions League runners-up in 2013, the 50-year-old has yet to secure the first silverware of his two-and-ahalf-year reign at Liverpool

In contrast, Guardiola has amassed 22 trophies with Barcelona, Bayern and City, including two Champions League crowns and six domestic league titles.