Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has revealed what he told his players after their 5-2 Champions League defeat to Real Madrid on Tuesday.
The two sides faced off in the first leg of their last 16 tie at Anfield, and it was certainly a match to remember.
Liverpool raced into a 2-0 lead inside 15 minutes. Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah both got on the scoresheet, with the latter profiting from a costly error by Real goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.
But the visitors hit back through Vinicius Junior, and then equalised when Alisson’s pass hit Vinicius and rebounded into the goal.
After three second half goals, Los Blancos head into the second leg with a three-goal advantage, meaning Liverpool must repeat their trick at the Bernabeu to have a chance of reaching the quarter-finals.
The Reds were criticised for a number of defensive errors afterwards that leave them with a mountain to climb in the return leg – but Klopp has stated that Liverpool must not believe they are already beaten.
Klopp on Liverpool dressing room message
Speaking after the game, Klopp revealed that he addressed his players as a group after the match – and told them that the devastating defeat should not result in one thing in particular.
When asked whether his players’ confidence would be affected, the German replied: “I can see that people think that. Understandable, but that’s not actually allowed.
“I told the boys directly after the game. This is a different thing that happened tonight. It’s one result which is exactly the opposite of what we want.
On the aftermath of the loss, he added: “A defeat is a defeat if you don’t learn from it. If you don’t learn from tonight that the first half was outstanding, the way we played, it was us in a nutshell. It was us how we want to be, and that’s what we want to keep doing.
“If we now allow this one game to be influential, we are really silly. We have a few days where we make sure we take the right things out of the game.
“Yes, we have to improve. Third goal, massively. First goal, massively.
“But we have to take the good things as well. It would be horrible if we don’t do that. The intensity, the effort we showed, the football we played. Pretty much everything we want to see from ourselves. We have to make sure we keep that.”
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