Otago Daily Times

Klopp salutes super subs after win

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SOUTHAMPTO­N: Juergen Klopp has hailed his ‘‘Ferraris in the garage’’ after a muchchange­d Liverpool took the Premier League title race to the final day of the season by coming from behind to beat Southampto­n 21 yesterday.

Reds boss Klopp made nine changes at St Mary’s following Sunday’s FA Cup final win over Chelsea and was without the likes of big names Sadio Mane, Virgil Van Dijk, Mohamed Salah and Fabinho.

Nathan Redmond’s superb solo effort threatened to hand the title to Manchester City but the visitors battled back and moved within a point of the leader thanks to goals from Takumi Minamino and Joel Matip.

‘‘Making nine changes, if it hadn’t worked out it would have been 1000% my responsibi­lity,’’ Klopp said.

‘‘I am so happy about the performanc­e. It was a bit touching, honestly. You think: ’Wow, these boys.’

‘‘It is like having Ferraris in the garage.

‘‘You let them out and they do it like this . . .

‘‘It is really tough for the boys sometimes. Whatever happens this year happens because of this group. They are exceptiona­l and they have showed that again.’’

Liverpool, in contention for an unpreceden­ted quadruple, will welcome Wolves to Anfield on Monday, hoping Steven Gerrard’s Aston Villa can do it a major favour away to Manchester City.

Having already lifted the Carabao Cup and FA Cup, Klopp will hope to welcome back some of his stars for the tantalisin­g weekend climax before turning his attentions to the Champions League final with Real Madrid on May 28.

The German retains hope of overhaulin­g Pep Guardiola’s reigning champions.

‘‘From my point of view in second you are thinking that of course City will win that game. But it is football,’’ he said.

‘‘We have to first win our game. It is not like we are talking about Wolves like they are not there.’’

Goalkeeper Alisson Becker and defender Ibrahima Konate were the only men retained from Sunday’s penalty shootout success at Wembley, during which Van Dijk and Salah were forced off with knee and groin problems respective­ly.

Liverpool lost Joe Gomez to injury on the south coast but his manager was upbeat about the issue.

Defeat for 15thplaced Southampto­n was its eighth in 11 league games.

Brice Samba saved three penalties to help Nottingham Forest reach the Championsh­ip playoff final courtesy of a nerveshred­ding 32 shootout win over Sheffield United yesterday.

The Blades had dragged themselves back into the semifinal despite losing the first leg 21 and trailing at the City Ground to Brennan Johnson’s opener as secondhalf goals from Morgan GibbsWhite and John Fleck took the tie to extra time.

As the tie finished level at 33 on aggregate after 120 minutes, Congolese goalkeeper Samba denied Oliver Norwood, Conor Hourihane and GibbsWhite to send Forest through to a showdown against Huddersfie­ld at Wembley Stadium on Monday week.

Johnson, Cafu and Steve Cook all scored their spot kicks and while Joe Lolley fired over it was inconseque­ntial after Samba saved from GibbsWhite to prompt a pitch invasion from jubilant Forest fans. — PA

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