Jurgen Klopp has vowed to make sure that Liverpool’s 5-2 defeat to Real Madrid doesn’t derail their hopes of finishing in the Premier League top four.
The Reds have endured a miserable season so far, and the Champions League had represented their last chance of silverware. However, despite taking an early 2-0 lead against the La Liga giants at Anfield, they went in level at the break before a second half collapse left them on the brink of round-of-16 elimination.
As a result, a Premier League top four finish is almost certain to be Liverpool’s only hope of qualifying for next season’s Champions League. And while back-to-back wins over Everton and Newcastle have seen them narrow the gap, they still occupy eighth and have a seven-point deficit to make up.
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Klopp conceded that Tuesday’s heavy defeat to Real Madrid could destroy his side’s confidence after their recent upturn in form. However, he insists he won’t allow that to happen after revealing what he told his players in the dressing room after the game.
“I can see that people think that,” he told reporters. “Understandable but that’s actually not allowed. I told the boys directly after the game.
“This is a different thing that happened tonight. It’s one result which is exactly the opposite of what we want. We made mistakes around the goal, yes as well.
“A defeat is a defeat if you don’t learn from it. If you don’t learn from tonight that the first half was outstanding, the way we played it was us in a nutshell. It was us how we want to be and that’s what we want to keep doing.
“If we now allow this one game to be influential, we are really silly. We have a few days where we make sure we take the right things out of the game. Yes, we have to improve. Third goal, massively. First goal, massively.
“But we have to take the good things as well. It would be horrible if we don’t do that. The intensity, the effort we showed, the football we played. Pretty much everything we want to see from ourselves. We have to make sure that we keep that.
“5-2 could be damaging but I hope I can make sure that isn’t happening.”
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