Jurgen Klopp is wary of the threat posed by Real Madrid in Saturday’s Champions League final, claiming they are still “world class”.
Klopp is ignoring the bookies who make Liverpool favourites and the pundits who claim Real are not as strong as they were when they beat the Reds in the 2018 final. Five of that Real side started in their sensational semi-final win over Manchester City and Klopp notes their midfield triumvirate of Luka Modric, Toni Kroos and Casemiro is still intact.
Karim Benzema is enjoying his most-prolific season at 34, while Brazilian forwards Rodrygo and Vinicius Junior are having fine campaigns. Real also won La Liga by 13 points and knocked out Paris St Germain, last year’s winners Chelsea and newly-crowned Premier League champions City during their march to Paris.
Klopp said: “It’s always tough because, first and foremost, they are a world-class team, a world-class club, and they know how to win football games.
“I think that says it all and they’re not out there to play friendly games, but neither are we and especially not in a final.
“I think the most we can learn from what we know about both teams, it didn’t happen too much squad wise, maybe even a little bit more with Real Madrid but still, the core, especially the midfield, is still there.
“A lot of things are still the way they were before. So, their backline has changed a lot, up front, Cristiano Ronaldo is not there, true, but Benzema is still there, plus the young Brazilians and all these kinds of things, so it’s a top-class team.”
The 2018 loss in Kiev was the third successive final defeat for Klopp and Liverpool before they ended that run the following year by beating Tottenham to lift a sixth Champions League.
That triumph in Madrid was the first of five in succession in finals and Klopp says this experience has greatly helped them.
“We lost big finals,” he told UEFA.com. “In the first year, Europa League final and the Carabao Cup final. All of these experiences are important in life.
“So then, we came back and we had to learn. We had to learn to be at our top level of focus and concentration in a game like this.
“And that’s what we did and I’m really happy with how the boys have developed over the years. That’s why the group has been pretty together since then. Some players are playing a third Champions League final, which is absolutely incredible.
“It’s good to have played finals before, definitely. I said it after we won the final against Tottenham, in all the finals that my teams have played before, we played better football but we lost.
“So, we had to learn to win finals and we’ve won a few now, not Champions League finals, but a few others. We are more experienced and that’s probably good.”
