Better the devil you know...
JURGEN KLOPP has warned that Liverpool’s dark horses can upset Champions League favourites Manchester City after the two were drawn together in the quarter-finals.
The Liverpool manager admitted in an ideal world his side would have avoided an all-English clash against their near-neighbours.
Yet he maintained his club’s superb record against City could give Pep Guardiola’s men a few sleepless nights ahead of two mouthwatering clashes, the first of which will take place at Anfield on April 4.
“Our record is not too bad against City. It was a close game here,” said Klopp. “We are not the team they love to play constantly. They didn’t want us.
“City are obviously one of the strongest teams in the competition but the good thing is we know more about City than we could know about any other team we could have faced.
“City knows that as well. It is not that they thought, ‘We want to have Liverpool,’ so that is all good.”
Liverpool hold the recent bragging rights, having won 4-3 at Anfield in January. But City are currently 21 points ahead of the Reds in the Premier League, beat them 5-0 at the Etihad last September and won the 2016 League Cup final against them.
However, that narrow win at Anfield continued a staggering record for the Reds at home against City, with just one win for the visitors – in May 2003 – in their past 31 visits in all competitions stretching back to 1981.
Klopp insisted it is not just that record which fills Liverpool with confidence they can take a lead from the first leg to the Etihad on April 10.
He said there were mitigating circumstances in the 5-0 defeat in September given Liverpool played nearly an hour with 10 men.
“We played, from our point of view, one-and-a-quarter really good games against them until we were a man down [the score was 1-0 to City at the time] and City know that as well,” he said.
And Klopp can draw comfort from his head-to-head record against Guardiola, having posted six victories out of nine with Borussia Dortmund and then Liverpool.
With Guardiola and his squad on a warm-weather training break in Abu Dhabi, it was left to Txiki Begiristain – City’s director of football – to react to the draw. And he conceded there might have been easier options in the pot for the last eight.
“It’s a very difficult one,” he said. “We like to travel and to go to another country in the Champions League but it is what it is. We know each other well, they are a very offensive team. They will be a great couple of games and we are going to see good football.
“We know the power and the strength of Liverpool. We are doing well in the league but in the Champions League there is no time for mistakes, everything has to work, you have to be almost perfect in both games.” Both sides have to contend with distractions, with City able to wrap up the league title at the Etihad against United three days later.
And much to their annoyance, Liverpool have had the Merseyside derby rescheduled from Sunday at 2.15pm to a 12.30pm kick-off on the Saturday after the first leg.
Klopp was incensed by the switch, which he claims will leave Liverpool compromised for their clash with Everton.
He said: “We have a really intense game against City and you give us the worst moment for a game against Everton, which we cannot say to our supporters, ‘I know it is Everton but we play on Tuesday again’. What is that?”