Liverpool can rule Europe ... it’s THEIR competition
NO matter how badly Liverpool have struggled in recent months, they are serial winners – and that mentality doesn’t just disappear.
Which is why, even with all the problems they’ve had, the injury nightmares and the results which keep tripping up their season, they will still think they can win the Champions League.
I do, too. Why not? They’ve been to the final twice in three years, they are experts at this knockout-style football and they still have a team boasting some of the best players on the planet.
They also know that Real Madrid are nowhere near the team they were, have a real vulnerability compounded by injury problems... and a style that suits Liverpool down to the ground.
But I can guarantee there is an ex-player somewhere in Spain now giving an interview at exactly the same time as me, saying exactly the same things about Jurgen Klopp’s side.
And he’s right, too. Of course, this is a good time to play Liverpool. They have problems and are beatable. It’s a hell of a better time to play them than a year ago, or two years ago.
But they will still believe they can go all the way to the final, and I believe that, too, for one very simple reason... Istanbul 2005.
Nobody gave that Liverpool team a chance of getting to the final – never mind winning it. And even when you watch a re-run of the final now, you still can’t believe it is possible they win it.
I’m not having a go at that Liverpool team, but you look at some of the squad. And if Klopp’s side have an obvious weakness at the back without their three senior centre-backs, it’s nothing compared to Rafa Benitez’s side then.
The point is Liverpool are one of those teams suited to a competition – and the European Cup is their competition.
If Klopp’s team have had a weakness in the past, then it’s breaking down sides who sit deep and try to stop them. Atletico did it last season in the Champions League, so many sides have done it coming to Anfield this season.
But Real won’t do that, even with all their injury problems, and with all their weaknesses. They are genetically programmed to come out and attack – and that could play into Liverpool’s hands. It’s a fascinating game. As I’ve said, the two teams are remarkably similar in the problems they’ve had this season, and the decline and fall they’ve suffered. But stop and think what stage of the competition we’re at.
The quarter-finals of the toughest knockout in world football. The last eight. You don’t get that far without having some star quality. And, at this stage, both teams will think they have a route to the final.
The winners play Chelsea or Porto in the semi and no one would bet against Real or Liverpool coming through that, despite their problems. It would be fair to say, too, that Chelsea and Porto will both be thinking they have an incredible route to the final. So it’s all there. Liverpool still have their season in their hands, still have a chance to win something and prove they are serial winners after all.
And I think when they get a sniff of that where it really matters – on a European night where there is so much history and romance – then I think we will see the quality they have, the winning mentality that still exists.
Reds have chance to prove they are serial winners