Henderson reckons that Liverpool’s emphatic win over Porto is the ideal preparation for Sunday's meeting with Manchester City.
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Liverpool continued their impressive start to the Champions League group stage, walking past FC Porto 5-1. On Tuesday night, the Reds produced a memorable performance at Estadio do Dragao, as a double each from Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino earned them the comprehensive victory. Sadio Mane scored the other goal of the night. Meanwhile, Jordan Henderson reckoned that Liverpool’s emphatic win over Porto is the ideal preparation for Sunday’s meeting with Manchester City. “One hundred per cent,” Henderson told Liverpoolfc.com when asked if the win in Portugal represented the ideal way to warm up for Sunday.
“It’s a good performance tonight but a really tough game at the weekend [against] a fantastic side so we need to recover well, prepare our best for that game because it will be an intense game and we need to just give everything like we always do. I think we’ve got about four days until Sunday so we’ve got some time on the grass to prepare and get ready for the big game.”
A few days prior to the Porto victory, Liverpool were held to a 3-3 draw at Brentford in the Premier League. Speaking about one of the core principles of the team, the captain explained, “Counter-press is key in a lot of our games, to be honest. We weren’t quite at our best at it in the last game, so we wanted to make sure we were today and we certainly were. You get your rewards, some of the goals come from that and overall I thought we were very good.”
Henderson also praised the team’s collective display at the Dragao. He added: “The overall performance, I thought, was really good – disappointed to concede I’m sure, but overall we’ve got to be delighted. It’s a tough place to come, they are a good team, so [we are] delighted with the performance and the result.”
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was undoubtedly happy with the team’s victory in the Champions League. Speaking about what pleased him most about the performance, Klopp said in his post-match press conference, “That we had a tricky start because obviously Porto watched the Brentford game, started pretty direct.”
“We struggled a little bit in the beginning but that’s the reason why we didn’t make a lot of changes, that’s because I wanted that we find the feedback on the pitch and sort the situation there and that’s what we did. From a specific moment on we played really good football. We didn’t use our big chances, we used two half-chances to score, to be 2-0 up.
“But we had really good football moments, we played good against a side who were fighting obviously for some parts of the game because they lost a centre-half after, or in, the Atletico game and the other centre-half today after warming up. We know best that things like this are not helpful and when you play then against us it’s even worse. So, we used that. But we played, really, some good football and scored nice goals, but had even better chances. So, it’s all good for tonight.”
