Oviri Kelvin, Sports Editor, Abuja
Jurgen Klopp says Inter Milan only posed a halftime threat to the Merseyside club in the Champions League round of 16 clashes at San Siro yesterday.
Speaking to the media after the game, the Liverpool boss praised his players for a job well done having scored two second-half goals to put the club ahead in preparation for the second leg clash in Anfield on the 8th March.
He added that despite the game being physical, Liverpool had to exploit other tactical means to get at the host team who depended on counter-attacks from floppy mistakes by Merseyside players to score goals.
Klopp said: “It’s half-time, nothing else. It will be a tricky one and we have to be ready for that. They played well, they played differently, but they were really good and that’s why it was 0-0.
“If it is a proper half-time, like today, if it was 2-0 at half-time I don’t tell my boys ‘Job done, put your legs on the table’. It is a tricky result so why should we think about it now.
“It was an incredibly physical game so we had to find a way. We didn’t have a brilliant day but a good enough day to be deserved winners because we scored two wonderful goals. They had their moments, but mainly counter-attacks when we lost the ball in the wrong spaces,” he added.
He expressed his displeasure over the injury sustained by Diogo Jota stating its uncertainty about the degree of injury.
Klopp said, “I’m really happy with everything, apart from that Diogo had to go off with something around the ankle ligament. We will see, we don’t know exactly.
“He could have played on, maybe that’s a good sign, but at half-time, the ankle was swollen anyway so we knew we had to change.”
“After the game, I couldn’t care less, but during the game, we didn’t finish the situations often enough.
Klopp said that Firmino who replaced the injured Jota needed a little time to get accustomed to the tempo of the game and the moment he scored the first goal, the team’s confidence in the ball was established.
He said, “Bobby needed time to get into the game because he got the balls in the most difficult areas. After he scored the goal, you could see the confidence back all of a sudden, the ball was our friend again and we won the game.
“We defended well, the way you have to defend. We like to win the ball early but sometimes it is not possible.
“You have to defend with passion, organisation helps as well. Defensively it was a really strong performance but it would be silly if we didn’t defend well as it means a lot to us in this competition and we invested a lot,” he added.
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The Liverpool boss stated that Elliott needed to improve in his games, he affirmed that his performance in the clash against Inter Milan was not bad.
He said: “It was OK, but Harvey can play much better, we know that.
“The reason Harvey played was that we knew which spaces we had to play and it’s usually naturally his area, these half-spaces around the midfield three, being very flexible, naturally offensive-minded, and all these kinds of things. That’s why he played. He had really good moments but we all know he can play much better.
“He did the job, he was working incredibly hard and all these kinds of things. When you are 18 years old and play against one of the most experienced teams in world football and they are Italian on top of that, for an offensive player it’s not a walk in the park.
“It was a very, very important game for him and very helpful for us as well,” Klopp added.
However, Klopp who interacted with BT sports said, “It’s a tough place to come, of course. They are a very good team, consistent and difficult to break down.
“The atmosphere was incredible, I enjoyed it out there. And obviously, it was very important with the set-pieces in the end again – that’s a very good strength of ours and hopefully, we can keep on using this.
“I think it was a very solid performance and a good result to take back home.
“Everyone expected to be under pressure because they are a very good team and it’s the Champions League. I think also one of the messages before the game was ‘you need to be ready to suffer, you need to be ready to do the hard work’ and we definitely did. It’s a very, very good performance, a clean sheet, and well, happy days,” he added.
Liverpool, having won Inter at the San Siro will be returning to Anfield to face Norwich in a Premier League tie this weekend.
