Evening Telegraph (First Edition)

’Pool hold upper hand but tie far from over

-

LIVERPOOL manager Jurgen Klopp and Manchester City counterpar­t Pep Guardiola agree their Champions League quarter-final is far from over despite the Merseyside­rs’ 3-0 demolition job at Anfield.

A scintillat­ing opening 45 minutes saw the visitors blown away with goals from Mohamed Salah, his 38th of the season, Alex OxladeCham­berlain (right) and Sadio Mane.

Unbelievab­ly, for a team which has scored 124 times his season, Guardiola’s side failed to register a shot on target leaving them an uphill task at the Etihad Stadium next Tuesday.

However, neither manager was taking the outcome for granted.

“Being 3-0 up is better than 3-0 down. We go to Manchester City and they want to strike back,” said Klopp.

“They didn’t play bad. They didn’t create the usual number of chances because we defend outstandin­gly.

“That is the only way to get anything against Manchester City and we did it at the end. It was 3-0 because of our quality, instead of 1-0. However, it is half-time, no more.

“I am too long in the business. Years ago I played with Dortmund at Real Madrid.

“We lost 3-0 and everyone told us it was done.

“I was really angry about that and, at home, we won 2-0 with six or seven changes in the team and everyone who saw the game knew we should have won 5-0, 100%.

“Being 3-0 down, City need to open a bit so, maybe, we can use this but I know it is not decided.

“No-one was in the dressing-room dancing around and celebratin­g after the half-time result. This leg is about 180 minutes or so.”

Guardiola remains optimistic his side can turn things around.

“In this room, I think there is nobody except the guy talking to you (Guardiola) who believes we can go through.

“There are 90 minutes more, we are going to try,” said the City boss.

“In football it can happen. We have 90 minutes more i n our stadium, with our people, with our families.

“The result is tough but I don’t have the feeling we played to concede that result.

“However, in this competitio­n the boxes make the difference and they were so good in those situations.”

The night got off to a bad start for City when their coach had windows smashed as it made its way through streets lined with thousands of fans on the approach to Anfield.

Flares were thrown at the bus and other missiles smashed glass, resulting in City having to call for another vehicle to transport the team home.

Liverpool quickly issued a statement condemning the behaviour, apologisin­g unreserved­ly, and will now investigat­e the incident.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom