Jurgen Klopp recalled a past experience of being 3-0 down after the first leg of a Champions League tie as he prepared his injury-hit Liverpool side for Barcelona’s visit to Anfield on Tuesday.
The Reds trail 3-0 following the first leg of their Champions League semi-final, and many are comparing Tuesday’s task to the comeback Liverpool pulled off three years ago against, coincidentally, Borussia Dortmund in a Europa League quarter-final at Anfield, when they won in added time from 4-2 down on aggregate with 25 minutes remaining.
Klopp, however, has another story about his former club he feels is more relevant ahead of the semi-final second leg.
In April 2014, Klopp’s Dortmund outfit lost 3-0 in the Bernabeu to Real Madrid in a Champions League quarter-final first leg. Dortmund threatened to upset the odds in the return fixture, and Klopp remains convinced they deserved far more from the 2-0 victory which saw them narrowly miss out.
“I don’t think too much about Dortmund,” Klopp said. “My own personal little story is about Real Madrid, years ago with Dortmund.
“We lost 3-0 there but then at home we changed seven or eight positions and we won 2-0 and we should have won 5-0 without a shadow of a doubt. We were clearly the better side.
“But it was Madrid then and it’s Barcelona now. It’s a big difference. I don’t want to talk too much, but I have told the players that story.
“It doesn’t mean that it will happen again but it is enough for me to believe. That is what we do, not more.”
Klopp insists the job against Ernesto Valverde’s side is not an insurmountable one, even without the injured pair of Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino.
“I had these games a couple of times,” he added. “In my experience, it’s not that before the game you think: ‘Yeah, I believe we will do it.’ I’m completely fine with the chance. I don’t think we have more, but I don’t think we have less.
“We believe in the chance, we believe in the opportunity, not in the result.
“A lot of things are possible. Can we believe at the beginning in the opportunity? Then we have to do the right things on the right pitch and then you need a bit of luck, which we didn’t have in Barcelona.
“That is clear. We need a little bit more luck at home. Then we need a fantastic atmosphere. We have two of the best strikers in the world not involved, so of course we need the crowd involved.
“It’s the Champions League and you want to be a part of it. We were so happy when we came through the quarter-final and now we are in the semi and we have to use the second leg.”
Klopp could well hand a debut to teenager Rhian Brewster due to Liverpool’s injury problems. The 19-year-old was scheduled to join the squad full-time for pre-season training after ankle and knee ligament problems curtailed his progress.
He was injured in a Liverpool Under-23 match in January 2018 and has been edging his way back to fitness in the last couple of months, but the absence of Firmino and Salah has left Klopp short of options up front.
Brewster will be named in the matchday squad for only the second time – the first was an unused substitute in the home defeat to Crystal Palace in April 2017, when Klopp’s side were again ravaged by injury.
He travelled with the squad for Saturday’s win at Newcastle as part of his ongoing integration and will be on the bench at Anfield on Tuesday night.
“Yes, there is a big chance. It’s nearly sure. It’s guaranteed,” said Klopp when asked about Brewster’s inclusion in the squad.
“And he’s ready. The situations are always like this. In an ideal world, in a season you always have much more players than you can involve in a squad.”
