Just take it as Red
Madrid, Champions League Final KLOPP SO CONFIDENT KOP CAN CELEBRATE JOY OF SIX BECAUSE ‘WE ARE LIVERPOOL’
ERPOOL’S luxury team coach was waiting side. Players’ bags were being loaded for trip to a Marbella training camp to work ast-minute plans and tactics ahead of the mpions League Final.
t Kop boss Jurgen Klopp wanted to release one last age to the faithful – and particularly those outside seyside who believe Real Madrid will stroll to their d successive European crown. e defiant German said without hesitation: “They are ime winners and they can make it a third time in a But and that is something not rget. e are Liverpool and we like that. And to be honest, we the role we are in. We like the situation. Now ything is positive. Six times? Of course it’s possible. ything is possible, thank God.” pp would love it, really love it, if he could bring back Big Ears’ and dramatically alter the wording to the chant of, “We’ve won it five times.” could feel the expectant euphoria before he took his for the trip to Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport. d he could savour the tangible excitement at the pect of a victory on the same scale as the 2005 triumph nst all the odds over AC Milan. t Klopp knows only too well the heartbreak of losing final, too. experienced that when he was at Borussia Dortmund Bayern Munich were the victors in May 2013. elve months on from that nightmare, the demons e back to haunt him and the gut-wrenching pain of night returned with a vengeance. pp said: “I remember when Real Madrid played ico and I was in Las Vegas on holiday by the pool. lot of people were watching it – I couldn’t. I was kind of annoyed by hearing the noise. I had no clue about who had scored or nothing about the game. I really tried to ignore it because it hurt. It was still painful what had happened the year before.
“We are all human beings and it’s not nice. But in that moment you realise: ‘What’s that? Oh, the Champions League Final’.
“All the people shouting were Spanish – the year before they were all German.
“If something is really important for you, you have to be ready for suffering.
“It is not nice when you lose a final but I will always try again. One of the rules is, the more you try the more likely that you will do it.
“I know how it feels and I felt it a few times when I have won. And that’s what we are going for. But there are no guarantees. If you want guarantees then don’t qualify for a final.
“Stay at home or go on holiday. That is how life is. Now, we are there again and it is such a big thing for us.
“I saw a car coming in this morning with two flags – Liverpool Champions League Final Kiev. So, it starts already.
“We are happy about it, having a smile on our face. That’s really cool.”
Five times European champions, Klopp has masterminded Liverpool’s progress towards making more history since the day he walked into Anfield back in October 2015 and announced himself as “The Normal One”. But there has been nothing normal about his era at the club.
His first season saw a heartbreaking penalty shootout defeat in the League Cup Final against Manchester City and ended with an incredible run to the Europa League Final – with landmark victories along the way against fierce rivals Manchester United and his old club Borussia Dortmund.
His second season saw a fourth-place finish which guaranteed Champions League football this season.
And this campaign, which has included three victories over champions Manchester City – two in Europe – has made Klopp an even bigger cult figure in Kop eyes.
The Liverpool boss added: “The situation when I arrived was that we were never good enough – or everybody felt like this. Since then we’ve made steps.
“We are in the situation in the world where there have been three dominant clubs in the last few years. Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern.
“We face one of them in the final. So who should be the favourite?
“It’s not that I want to be the underdog and I don’t feel like an underdog. But yes, they are favourites. They know everything.
“They could write the f***ing scripts for the finals because they have experienced it four times in the last five years.
“We can’t. But no problem with that. We want to play football and win a football game – and thank God it is always possible. We will try.
“I know it will be very special and I would really love to come back and bring the people the trophy. That would be really, really nice.”