Klopp Talk: Liverpool Must “Ignore the Result From the First Game”

Liverpool played a complete and dominant game against Villarreal in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final against last season’s Europa League winners and the team that upset Bayern Munich in the last round.

On Tuesday night in the second leg, away at the Estadio de la Cerámica in Villarreal, they will need to be at least as good and perhaps even better. That was Jürgen Klopp’s take today at his pre-match press conference.

“It’s half-time,” Klopp stated. “In the best possible way, you ignore the result from the first game. If that would be a cup game, only one game and it would be decided and we have to go to Villarreal, we would try to win there.

That’s what we want to try. Knowing that they will go with all they have, it’s absolutely clear. And it was clear after the game directly with all the things Unai said after the game, the way they [rotated players] for the game in La Liga.”

While Villarreal have impressed in Europe, beating Juventus and Bayern to reach the semis, they sit a disappointing seventh in Spain. On Tuesday, unfavored and with nothing to lose, they will push for a third Champions League upset.

“It will be a tough one, but it’s fine,” Klopp added. “A Champions League semi-final should be tough. We never expect it to be easy and this will not be, but we played a good game at home and we better play a good game there.”