Klavan aims to snuff out Aguero again
IN football terms, Argentina against Estonia is a no-contest.
But Liverpool’s Estonian defender Ragnar Klavan has already kept Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero quiet once this season and he’s determined to snuff the Argentine out for a second time.
The Reds came out on top on New Year’s Eve at Anfield with a 1-0 win.
That was one of Klavan’s best performances since he joined Liverpool from German side Augbsurg last summer as Aguero was kept in check.
And with City being knocked out of the Champions League by Monaco in midweek, the Estonian centre half wants to prolong the agony.
“Itwasagreatgamefromour side, and for me too, the first time playing against Aguero,” he recalls.
“He’s a world-class striker but a lot of teams in the Premier League have strikers like that, so it’s nice to play against them.
“There is no fear on my part. I have a lot of respect for the strikers I face, but fear is not the right word.
“It was a really good team effort thatday.Wedidn’thavesomany chances, but we defended very well, especially when the pressure was on us in the second half.
“There are two ways it could go with City. Maybe they are wounded ormaybetheyareevenmoreeager playing at home to show they want to win this game.”
It is for this type of match that Klavan kept plugging away. Over a decade after he left home, he finally reached the Premier League, aged 30.
In doing so, he has followed in the footsteps of his childhood hero, Mart Poom, Derby and Sunderland’s former Estonian keeper.
“It was a dream come true,” he acknowledges. “I always worked hard and never gave up on that dream.
“Even when I was 29, I kept on working. I never said: ‘This is it for the rest of my career.’
“Mart Poom was one of my idols. He was a very hard-working guy and even from a small football country like Estonia, he made it to England.
“I watched him as much as possible on television. It wasn’t so easy to watch football in the Nineties with no internet.
“So this was a realisation for me that if you work hard, you can achieve great things.”