Juergen Klopp on Wednesday said that every team still alive in the UEFA Champions League would have designs on winning it, but despite Liverpool cruising into the quarter-finals, the German downplayed his own team’s chances as they struggle for form in the Premier League.
Liverpool advanced after their 2-0 second-leg win over RB Leipzig completed a 4-0 aggregate victory, moving the 2018-2019 winners into the quarters for the third time in four seasons.
With the Merseyside club languishing in eighth spot in the Premier League, seven points behind fourth-placed Chelsea, winning the Champions League appears to be their best shot at qualifying for Europe’s elite club competition next season.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“The only reason you play in this competition is because you want to win it,” Klopp said. “I am not silly, we know so far this is not a season which looks like we will win the Champions League, but that doesn’t mean we don’t want to go as far as possible and then we will see what is possible for us.”
“Now we have to wait for the draw; it will be extremely tough whoever we get, but we don’t really think that far, we don’t have to,” he said.
Mohamed Salah, who opened the scoring in the 70th minute on Wednesday before Sadio Mane made it 2-0, said that it was important to focus game by game.
Photo: AFP
“The team is not in the best shape, but we want to fight in the Champions League and in each game in the Premier League,” Salah said. “We don’t have to look to the big picture because sometimes when you do, we see too much pressure carried on to the pitch. We just need to leave the pressure off the field and play.”
Liverpool face Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Premier League on Monday next week.
In France, Paris Saint-Germain coach Mauricio Pochettino told his players to shake off their negative mindset in their 1-1 draw against Barcelona as they completed a 5-2 aggregate victory to reach the Champions League quarter-finals.
PSG endured a humiliating exit at the hands of Barcelona in 2017 as the Spanish side thrashed them 6-1 to overturn a 4-0 first-leg deficit in the round-of-16, and it briefly looked like another difficult night could be on the cards at the Parc des Princes in Paris.
After PSG’s Kylian Mbappe, who scored a hat-trick in the first leg at the Camp Nou, opened the scoring with a penalty against the run of play. Lionel Messi leveled with a jaw-dropping 25m missile before stepping up to take a penalty after Antoine Griezmann had been fouled by Layvin Kurzawa.
He could have put Barca within two goals of forcing extra-time against a PSG side who looked uninspired and shaky, but Kaylor Navas made a decisive save as Messi missed his first penalty in the competition since 2015.
“In the first half, we were thinking too much,” Pochettino said. “We were thinking too much about the qualification and not enough about playing. I told the players to shake off those negative thoughts and think about the game.”
“We were not happy with that first half and we said it to the players,” he said.
MARRED FINAL: As most of Senegalese players walked off the pitch after a controversial decision, some supporters threw objects and attempted to get onto the pitch Senegal on Sunday won the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) as Pape Gueye’s extra-time winner sunk hosts Morocco 1-0 after a chaotic final that saw the eventual champions storm off the pitch late in the game. Brahim Diaz could have won the trophy for Morocco with a controversial spot-kick in the 24th minute of added time at the end of normal time as ugly scenes broke out in the stands. However, Senegal goalkeeper Edouard Mendy easily saved the weak attempted “Panenka” chip by the Real Madrid winger, who was clearly distracted by the long delay that followed the penalty award.
James Harden on Friday scored 31 points and came up big in overtime to help the Los Angeles Clippers erase a double-digit deficit on the way to a 121-117 NBA victory over the Toronto Raptors. Harden scored 16 points in the fourth quarter and overtime as the Clippers pushed their wining steak to five games despite the absence of star Kawhi Leonard with a sprained right ankle. The Clippers trailed by 11 entering the fourth quarter, but Harden drilled a pair of free-throws with 1:24 left in regulation to tie it and after misses from both teams, they went to
Tobias Harris on Monday scored 25 points as the Detroit Pistons held off the Boston Celtics to score a 104-103 victory in their top-of-the-table Eastern Conference showdown. Harris was one of four Detroit players to finish in double figures, with Jalen Duren adding 18 points and point guard Cade Cunningham scoring 16 points with 14 assists. The win sees Detroit extend their lead at the top of the Eastern Conference to 31-10, 5.5 games ahead of second-placed Boston, who fell to 26-16 with the defeat. Jaylen Brown led the Celtics scoring with 32 points and almost snatched victory in the
Qatar’s Nasser al-Attiyah on Saturday secured his sixth Dakar Rally car title in Saudi Arabia with Luciano Benavides scraping home by two seconds to claim the motorbike title. “We’ve worked very hard since last year. I might not be showing much emotion yet, but it’s there, deep down. We are so happy to win,” al-Attiyah said at the finish. Al-Attiyah, at the wheel of a Dacia, only had to avoid a final day slip-up to top the podium after bringing his career tally of stage wins to 50 on Friday. The 55-year-old, who took clay pigeon shooting bronze at the
RSS