Jurgen Klopp has come out to say that teams in the Champions League will fear Liverpool after they were drawn with Spartak Moscow, Sevilla and Maribor in the group stages.
When asked by the club’s website whether teams in Europe would be fearful of his side, the Reds boss replied: “In this moment, for sure.
“But it depends on our performance. We had a nice sign last night [in the second leg against Hoffenheim on Wednesday] — the first 20 minutes were probably part of the best pieces of football I was ever part of. That was really impressive.
“But we have to replicate this — we have to do it again and again and again. Then we can be successful. That’s good news but hard work also. We all know how big the pressure was yesterday. Now we are in the Champions League.
“We will first of all prepare the team for the Arsenal game. Then all the players are around the world and hopefully they can come back healthy, that’s the main thing. Then, in the moment when we know who we will play first, we will go for it.
“There are a few weeks until then; we will need the time and we will use it. It just feels good, I cannot say differently. Now we can start the preparation.”
“We are not the favourite in the tournament, we are not the favourite in the group — we are just a challenger,” he said. “The challenger should be 100 percent concentrated and give everything, and that’s what we’ll try to do.”
“We will plan it probably from tomorrow on. We will take as much information. Maybe we can send the guys there,” he said. “The Russian league has played seven games already, so that’s probably an advantage for them — they have rhythm and all that stuff. Spain had one matchday, I don’t know about Slovenia.
“We’ll probably send people there and watch them; we can get enough games of theirs, that’s not a problem in the world of football. We will know everything until we play them and we will be prepared 100 percent.”
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