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Klopp calls for intensity as he prepares to unveil Kop masterplan for pipping Pep’s City in all-Prem last-8 clash

JURGEN KLOPP is ready to share his masterplan for beating Manchester City in the Champions League.

For the Liverpool manager the key is intensity. “Two very intense games. If they are not intense from our point of view we have no chance,” he said.

Klopp knows what he is talking about. Encouragingly for Reds fans, he has won more times against Pep Guardiola than any other manager. He also has a seriously impressive winning record against City.

The German coach knows that only Liverpool at their vibrant, aggressive, energetic best can defeat the team the bookmakers rate almost as likely as Barcelona to lift the trophy in Kiev on May 26.

He has done it before against Guardiola when the Spanish manager was in charge of Bayern Munich.

Perhaps his biggest victory came in the Super Cup in 2014 when Dortmund won 2-0, but his most memorable was in January at Anfield when Liverpool recorded a 4-3 win in one of the Premier League’s greatest-ever contests.

And Klopp revealed his blueprint for the quarter-final showdown with the English champions-elect when he said: “If we can play to our normal philosophy and mix it up with attitude, like being brave, then there is something in it for us. I love these games. They are fantastic for me because you know what City do even at the highest level. They don’t defend a lead, they go again. For sure the first will be a really exciting game to watch.”

Klopp’s record against Guardiola and City is enough to make the Blues fearful of the first leg of the quarter-final clash at Anfield on April 4.

In nine games as a manager against City, the German has enjoyed five wins and two draws. Of the two defeats, one was on pens after a 1-1 draw at Wembley

in the 2016 League Cup final, and the other when his Liverpool side were reduced to 10 men.

Klopp admitted it is “not cool” to play against another Premier League side in Europe but he has done that already, outplaying Manchester United on the way to the Europa League final in 2016. And he believes it offers advantages.

“The good thing is we know more about City than we could know about any other team we could have faced,” he said.

“They beat us on their ground but we played oneand-a-quarter really good games until we were a man down. City know that. I don’t think they would have wanted to be drawn against us.”