‘Reds back to thrilling best’

Manchester City at the top of the table.

“In all our good games it was [pressing] like this. City last season, [Alex] OxladeChamberlain’s goal, an unbelievable shot, but how we won the ball back before that made all the difference,” Klopp said. “It was a really good performance against Red Star. In the end it was the perfect game.

“Beforehand, I said how difficult it could be. It didn’t look that difficult but we will see in the game in Belgrade how good they can be. They weren’t bad, it was just that we were good. I was really happy with that game and the way we played, the calmness we had.

“The first 20 minutes the timing wasn’t good but then we calmed the game down and played football.”

Cardiff manager Neil Warnock, meanwhile, has told his players they face mission impossible at Liverpool.

The Bluebirds boss believes the unbeaten Reds possess the best forward line in the world, as he tries to help his team to back-to-back wins in the top flight for the first time since 1962. “Somebody sent me the odds for this game the other night. We were 70-1 to win 1-0 and they were 50-1 to win 7-1 – it’s a good job I don’t bet,” said Warnock.

“It is a massive challenge for us to go to Anfield. It is virtually impossible for any team to go there at the moment.

“Their front three is possibly the best in the club game in the world. We can cause them a few problems but we know we’ll have to play to the top of our potential to give them a good game. Even then we have to hope they have a bit of an off day.”