Klopp won’t take Emery challenge for granted
JURGEN KLOPP has promised Liverpool will not underestimate Champions League semi-final opponents Villarreal and their head coach Unai Emery.
Almost six years ago, in his first season at the Merseyside club, Klopp’s side led 1-0 at half-time of the Europa League final against Emery’s Sevilla in Basel but went on to lose 3-1.
It was the first – and only – time Emery has beaten Klopp, having lost four and drawn one during his time at the Arsenal helm.
Villarreal, last year’s Europa League winners, are bidding to reach their first Champions League final but Klopp insists the Reds will not make the same mistake as Juventus and Bayern Munich, who have already been dispatched by the Spanish side.
“It is a massive game,” said Klopp, who is out to lead Liverpool to a third final in five years. “So many coaches out there work their socks off their whole life and have no chance to be close to a semi-final so we have to enjoy it.
“There might have been a little advantage in the last two games. Maybe Juve or Bayern underestimated them, but that will never happen to us.”
Klopp said he has not thought about the 2016 Europa League final defeat for a while but believes it was a significant moment, just seven months into his Anfield reign.
“I said it that night, I think that we would come back, without knowing we would come back, but at that moment I really thought we had a chance to come back stronger and we did,” he said.
“Would it have been anything different since then if we had we won that night? I don’t think so.
“I would have loved to have lifted that trophy that night but you have to learn from these things and that’s what we tried to do.”