Klopp concedes Liverpool need to fix Champions League away form
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp thinks his side need to rediscover their mojo after a third successive away UEFA Champions League defeat last night left their qualification hopes in the balance.
A win in Serbia would have left the Reds, Group C leaders going into the game, needing to avoid defeat in their final two matches to qualify – but they lost 2-0 against Red Star Belgrade to leave things wide open.
Two first-half goals from Milan Pavkov were enough to beat the offcolour Anfield outfit.
Klopp admitted, after failing to score here and in Naples previously, that he needs to take a closer look at what has changed.
Asked whether they now had an issue playing away, he replied: “In the game, not in general, we lost it.
“I saw a few games like this already, and it is really difficult to find your mojo back.
“You don’t find solutions on the pitch, you solve problems. We made life a bit too easy tonight.
“I don’t say it is already serious if you lose twice but we have to make sure it will not happen again, as the next game is an away game (against Paris SaintGermain) before a very difficult home game against Napoli.
“We have to make sure you cannot ask that question again. It is too early to say how it is. We had a lot of moments when we could get in control of the game and we didn’t do it, we just made the wrong decision.
“We have to make sure in Paris that we do better. We will talk about that, but tonight we can’t change it.”
The turning point came as early as the 17th minute when Daniel Sturridge, preferred up front to Roberto Firmino, blazed a chance he should have buried from close range.
Klopp was asked what went wrong. “I’ve only got ten fingers. The start was pretty intense, it was clear they wanted to strike back [after the 4-0 defeat at Anfield],” the German added.
“The first big chance to Daniel was a very big one. We gave them too many set-pieces. They scored with a header after the corner and the second goal was out of the blue. We gave the ball away and that’s not cool in a game like this, an atmosphere like this, a situation like this.
“You then have to play your best football in a negative mood. It was a blow. We tried to change in the second half, we had some situations.
“Very dominant, didn’t give a lot of counter-attacks away but we had moments, we had ‘nearly’ chances, but the biggest chances were in the last two or three minutes.
“If – a big if – we had scored early, the game would have changed, but we didn’t,” Klopp concluded.
Red Star coach Vladan Milojevic was delighted with a performance which earned the first Champions League group stage win for a Serbian side.
“It was a great match for us,” he said. “We are dedicating this game to our supporters because they were phenomenal. The whole country lived for this.
“We won against a big club and this is a first win in the Champions League for any club in this country, and this is why this generation can become equal to earlier generations and enter history.”
In Group B, Harry Kane was the familiar hero as his two late goals earned Tottenham Hotspur a 2-1 win over PSV Eindhoven and kept their Champions League hopes alive.
Spurs’ faltering campaign looked like hitting a new low after Luuk de Jong put the Dutch side ahead after only a minute at Wembley, which left Mauricio Pochettino’s men on the brink of being knocked out.
However, Kane stood up when it mattered to rescue his side, equalising in the 78th minute and then being the beneficiary of an extremely kind deflection 11 minutes later to complete the turnaround.
The win, Spurs’ first of the group stage, leaves them in third place, three points behind Inter Milan, who visit Wembley in three weeks’ time.
They will need to win that game and will have to be more clinical than they were against PSV, who should have been put to bed long before Kane’s late heroics. Spurs were not going to complain at any luck they had, and all eyes are now on the clash with the Serie A side, who drew 1-1 at home with Barcelona last night.