• Concussed Mohamed Salah and injured Roberto Firmino out
• Manager hints at surprise selections for semi-final, second leg
Jürgen Klopp was occupied with keeping the Premier League title race alive in between Champions League dates with Barcelona yet found time for a history lesson with Liverpool’s players before the formidable task that awaits on Tuesday. It concerned the art of recovering from a 3-0 defeat against Spanish opposition and the willingness, should another feat of Anfield escapology prove beyond them, to “fail in the most beautiful way”.
Klopp has savoured a European comeback as Liverpool manager before, when his new team were twice left needing three goals to overcome his old one, Borussia Dortmund, in the 2016 Europa League quarter-finals. They delivered on that raucous night at Anfield, but without Mohamed Salah – whose concussion sustained against Newcastle means a mandatory six-day break before he can return against Wolves on Sunday – and injured Roberto Firmino, and against Lionel Messi and Luis Suárez, it would eclipse anything the stadium has witnessed in European competition to preserve Klopp’s record of never having lost a Uefa knockout tie as the Liverpool manager. His own past provides a glimmer of hope.
Written by Andy Hunter
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/may/06/liverpool-barcelona-champions-league-second-leg-jurgen-klopp under the title “Jürgen Klopp tells Liverpool to shock Barcelona or ‘fail beautifully’”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
