Victory Over PSG Further Proof Liverpool Belong Amongst Europe’s Best

Liverpool are in the midst of a very difficult month, having now faced Tottenham and Paris Saint-Germain and with Southampton, two games against Chelsea, Napoli, and Manchester United still to come. They’ve won those first two—and their first six in all competitions.

And while avoiding defeat—and maybe even winning out—isn’t something anyone will be counting on, it doesn’t seem impossible despite the quality of opposition. That, says Jürgen Klopp, tells you everything you need to know about where Liverpool Football Club is today.

“The cool development of our club is when you hear Liverpool play PSG, you don’t think we are without any chance anymore,” Liverpool’s manager said following the match. “I would say one, two, three years ago, everybody would have thought we cannot climb there.

“That’s good, but it’s of course because of last year and the start of this season maybe, and because of the players we have and the football we have played. But it’s still so unbelievably difficult. You see what the boys make of the match plan—it’s extraordinary. It’s outstanding.”

Klopp was impressed by the commitment of his players against PSG, with the strength and tenacity of the midfield in particular standing out—particularly noteworthy as it was a trio of established players who started while two expensive new signings were left on the bench.

Jordan Henderson, James Milner, and Gini Wijnaldum all had exceptional nights, with Milner in particular standing and making Neymar look distinctly average. That hard work, at times, made the game look easy for Liverpool despite PSG’s two goals—but it was anything but.

“One of them a yard less tonight and it’s game over,” Klopp added. “They were so in the game and it is not only that we fight a lot—and I love that—but we play football as well, and that looked really confident. We look now much more tuned than it maybe was in the past.

“So we played a midfield who played a lot of times last season together, that was the reason for that tonight. We didn’t learn a lot tonight which we didn’t know before, but it’s nice to see that we can do it.”