WE WON’T SLIP UP NOW, SAYS JURGEN

LIVERPOOL’S stars vowed not to let Champions League qualification slip as manager Jurgen Klopp claimed they had emphatically answered mounting criticism. Victory against relegated Middlesbrough next weekend will confirm Liverpool in a topfour spot for only the second time in eight seasons — securing a return to Europe’s premier competition. ‘Obviously today was a good sign,’ Klopp said. ‘The first thing the players said in the dressing room was “one more time, one more game”.’ They drew their previous game, against Southampton, and Klopp said: ‘Maybe people said “yeah, they can’t deal with pressure”. Part of our life is to ignore the bad part of pressure and use the good parts. That’s our job and I thought we did really well. ‘These players have done so well this season — that’s why we are in the situation that we are. Nobody gives you 73 points as a present. We saw a convincing performance. A perfect afternoon.’ After scoring his third Premier League goal of the season, Daniel Sturridge is likely to lead the line again for Liverpool against Middlesbrough if Roberto Firmino is not fit to play. ‘Unfortunately Daniel’s not been available that often but he was brilliant,’ Klopp said. ‘We know about the difficulty of the next game, nobody will go into this game underestimating Middlesbrough.’ West Ham’s manager, Slaven Bilic, meanwhile, was left angry at a lack of effort by his team. ‘We wanted to put in a similar performance to the Spurs game and we didn’t,’ Bilic said. ‘We have to be honest about it. We wanted to avoid that factor of complacency but obviously it was there, at least subconsciously.’

FORMER Liverpool striker Dirk Kuyt scored a hat-trick yesterday to seal Feyenoord’s first Dutch title since 1999. Kuyt, 36, hit three in the 3-1 final-day win over Heracles. His first goal of the game was his 100th for Feyenoord.