Liverpool manager reckons the league victory against Aston Villa is just the result they needed ahead of Champions League return leg.
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For a moment it felt as though Liverpool’s torrid home run in 2021 is set to continue when Aston Villa took the lead at Anfield on Saturday. But a brilliant second half comeback, including an injury-time winner by Trent Alexander-Arnold, ended a dismal run of six league defeats at Anfield. Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp believes the 2-1 Premier League win can boost the team ahead of the Champions League quarterfinal second leg against Real Madrid.
Liverpool have to bring back their A-game to stand a chance of beating Real Madrid in Europe this week. They were out of sorts in the 1-3 defeat in the reverse leg at Santiago Bernabeu. But the Reds are known for producing miraculous comebacks in the past. Couple of years ago, Liverpool overturned a 0-3 first-leg deficit to beat Barcelona 4-0 in the reverse leg at Anfield to qualify for the final that season.
Klopp believes Liverpool need to be “perfect” to even stand a chance of winning the quarterfinal match. “Whatever we can … we’ll take. That’s clear. We need a perfect performance on Wednesday if we want to have a chance only – just for a chance,” Klopp told reporters after the match.
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— Liverpool FC (@LFC) April 10, 2021
“I think the way we played and the way Real played there, it doesn’t look promising but the good thing is we can play better. That would change the game already, but we have to,” he added. “Real don’t come here and think they’re already through. It’ll be a tough one, but we’ll give it a try I can promise – and that’s the only thing we can say.”
Klopp also said how a few victories can change the morale of the team, making them eager to play more matches. “When you’re in a moment, when you win every game … you don’t feel the intensity – you want to play the next game. You could play the next game the next day,” Klopp said.
“Obviously, for us in the moment it’s not that easy and we have to work really hard, we need to have five or 10 chances to score a goal. A very important three points (against Villa) and whatever it will give us for Wednesday, we will use.”
