Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
ONE FOR OUR GLADIATORS
The eternal city will always be Rome sweet Rome for Liverpool, and Klopp says his team must emulate club legends and write their own chapter in Anfield lore
JURGEN KLOPP believes it is “destiny” that Liverpool’s Champions League journey should stop off in Rome.
The draw for the semifinal sees the Reds collide with an old foe in Roma, whose Stadio Olimpico was the setting for two of the greatest nights in Liverpool’s illustrious history.
And Klopp has revealed he will pore over videos of those famous European Cup victories in 1977 and 1984 to help him plot his own glorious chapter in Anfield folklore.
He knows there is something about Rome and Liverpool, and he believes it is the perfect venue for his side to prove they can match the legends of the past.
“I will watch them for sure because it is destiny,” Klopp said of those two European Cup finals.
“It is like if any
German goes to Bern in Switzerland he cannot avoid thinking about 1954 (when Germany won a World Cup there ). It is just a special place. You think ‘Ok, it happened here, well done all these guys.’
“If I find something that helped make the place even more remarkable or special for Liverpool then of course I will use it.” Klopp is all too aware of Liverpool’s glittering European history. He admitted it was a huge pull in his decision to join the club, and he has closely studied those years of plenty that made the Reds such European icons.
He witnessed the excitement of club legends like Kenny Dalglish and Steven Gerrard as Liverpool dismantled Manchester City in the quarter-final and takes a huge amount of pride in their obvious jubilation.
Yet he has told his players they can take nothing for granted against
Roma, the
rank outsiders of the four teams left in the competition. Instead he wants them to become legends in their own right.
“Rome is still Rome. It has a big place in Liverpool history but we cannot compare those days to now,” he went on.
“Those teams were great but they became great in those situations and now people say ‘They did it like this.’ It is good to have role models but in the end you have to do it your own way. We have to write our own history.
“The legends we all love are still around and they are clapping because they like what we are doing. Kenny Dalglish is over the moon. Steven Gerrard and all the other guys in between, you can feel it and see it. That’s cool.
“Now we need to show attitude and character. There is so much to go for.”
Indeed Liverpool, because they avoided European powerhouses Real Madrid and Bayern Munich - who
meet in the other semi-final – in yesterday’s draw, are just 9-4 to win the Champions League for the first time since 2005.
While Klopp couldn’t hide his excitement about the Euro draw, he was still determined to bring his players back to earth by insisting they must get the job done in the Premier League first. And next up tonight is Bournemouth. “I hear people say we have already qualified for next season’s Champions League and that we should concentrate only on Roma,” the German went on. “I see positive things but I do not feel them because there is a job to do.
“Bournemouth this weekend will be really tough and we have to maintain our rhythm otherwise we will have no chance to beat these top sides.”