SAYS JURGEN KLOPP
LIVERPOOL manager Jurgen Klopp admits he was scared for his former Dortmund players after Tuesday night’s bomb attack on their team bus.
And he believes UEFA’s top brass wouldn’t have made the decision to reschedule their Champions League quarter-final first leg so quickly if any of them had been on the coach.
Dortmund boss Thomas Tuchel hit out at the governing body for disregarding the feelings of his squad by telling them to play less than 24 hours after the attack.
Tuchel claims the club were informed of the decision by text and defender Marc Bartra was still in hospital while his team-mates were losing 3-2 to Monaco.
Klopp, who spent seven years at Borussia and signed many of the players who are still there, agreed with Tuchel.
He said: “Everyone can imagine it was a really difficult moment for me.
“I don’t know how often I have been in that hotel down the years. I know exactly where it is and a lot of my friends were on the bus.
“I tried immediately to get some information. I was really concerned.
“I was scared for everyone. I had contact with a few people but I didn’t want to bother them with silly questions so I was waiting like the rest of the world for more information.
“It’s really difficult to find a date in this tight schedule but everyone would have understood if they said they did not want to play.
“I saw it in the faces of my former players after the game and I saw the shock in their eyes. That was really hard.
“It will obviously take time to deal with it in a proper way.
“I’m pretty sure if some of the people who made the decision (to play the match) afterwards had been on the bus they would not have played the game. But when you are not on the bus you cannot really imagine how it was exactly.”
Security has been increased at grounds this season in the wake of terrorist attacks but Klopp has no specific concerns about the safety of himself or his Liverpool players.
He said: “Am I concerned? No. But in all parts of life we can only give 100 per cent and I’m sure everyone is doing this to give you the best security you can have.”