Liverpool booked a place in their third Champions League final in five seasons after staging an impressive second-half comeback victory over Villarreal on Tuesday night. This means Jurgen Klopp and his squad can sit back and relax tonight as they wait to see who they’ll take on in the showpiece event in Paris.
Real Madrid and Manchester City will clash in their second leg semi-final with the scoreline finely poised at 4-3 following last week’s thrilling clash at the Etihad. Many make City favourites to progress, however, having already seen off Paris Saint-Germain and holders Chelsea en route to this stage, Carlo Ancelotti’s Real Madrid cannot be underestimated.
Following his own side’s success last night, Klopp was asked if he’d favour one opponent over the other in the final, but he was coy in his response. “I will watch it!" he said. "Whoever it will be, deserves it massively. It’s not that I would wish for one or the other, it will be massive. Whoever gets the result will deserve it and then we face each other in Paris.”
While Klopp gave little away in terms of who he’d prefer to come up against, many suspect Liverpool would favour Real Madrid over Man City given that Guardiola's men are considered the stronger current side on paper.
These thoughts were echoed by Michael Owen in the BT Studio on Tuesday night, “I think it’s obvious that Liverpool and Manchester City are the best two teams around at the moment, therefore Liverpool fans will all want Real Madrid”
Alternatively though, there’s perhaps more evidence to indicate that if he had the choice, Klopp may prefer to take on Guardiola over Ancelotti. This is because the experienced Italian manager has proven to be somewhat of a thorn in Klopp’s side in recent years.
The two managers' most recent meeting came in the Premier League last season when Ancelotti’s Everton side travelled to Anfield and secured an impressive 2-0 victory. That stretched Ancelotti’s record over Klopp to three straight unbeaten matches.
Klopp has in fact managed to win just one of his last six games against Ancelotti during spells as manager of Everton and Napoli. That one win came when his must-changed Liverpool side overcame a rotated Everton team 1-0 in FA Cup third round back in January 2020.
One of the ways in which Ancelotti has enjoyed success against Klopp has been coming up with tactical plans to nullify the threat posed by his team’s usually dangerous attack. It’s striking that across those aforementioned six meetings, Klopp’s side failed to score three times, and scored more than one goal only once.
That, in particular, could be a key reason why Klopp would favour a clash with Guardiola’s City over Madrid. Liverpool have by no means dominated their Manchester-based rivals in recent meetings, but they are undefeated in three clashes with them, netting two or more goals on each occasion. That run includes last month's 3-2 FA Cup semi-final win at Wembley.
You actually have to go back to July 2020 for the last time Liverpool failed to score against City, and that came in a 4-0 defeat after they’d already won the Premier League title. While overcoming City in a Champions League final would be no easy feat for Liverpool, recent history highlights why Klopp might believe they’d be the best opponent for his side to face in Paris.
