We will try everything to win the game- Jurgen Klopp
The Reds host the Portuguese champions at Anfield on Tuesday.
The Premier League title race has shaped up to be an eventful affair this season with the Reds and Cityzens locked in an intense battle at the top of the table. As things stand, Liverpool lead the table with two points but Manchester City have an extra game in hand.
However, the focus shifts from the Premier League and on to the Champions League this week as Europe’s premier club competition will put Liverpool against Porto tomorrow. Jurgen Klopp confirmed in a press conference that despite not having a squad as deep as Pep’s City, Liverpool will battle for it all.
Liverpool were mightily impressive in their Round of 16 clash against Bayern Munich and the quarter-final draw has certainly been favourable for them as Porto are not the toughest rivals they could have drawn.
As such, Liverpool are expected to reach the semi-finals phase with ease, a stage where they met Manchester City and got the better of them last season.
Until last year, Liverpool had not made the knockout stages of the Champions League since 2008-09 and therefor Klopp refuses to consider his spot in the last eight for granted in favour of the heavyweight Premier League clash against Chelsea this weekend.
Asked whether Jordan Henderson and James Milner could start against Porto after impressing from the bench in a win at Southampton last Friday, Klopp said: “We'll see."
“We have to recover now and then we will make the line-up for Porto. We are very ambitious. We will try everything. It's at Anfield, it's a quarter-final, it's a big one for us."
“This is our second year [back] in the Champions League, not year number 12 or whatever. We are not Real Madrid who have won it the last three times. We like the competition and we will try everything to win the game.”
Andrew Robertson will miss the first leg having picked up too many yellow cards and Klopp will be forced to pick either of makeshift left-back James Milner or Alberto Moreno for the role.
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Amid speculations from Bayern with former President and club legend Franz Beckenbauer floating the idea that Klopp would be a wonderful fit for the Bavarian club, Jurgen didn’t take two seconds to dismiss Beckenbauer’s comments.
"I have a contract at Liverpool until 2022. And nobody here has the feeling that we should cancel it."
"Neither from the owners nor from my side there is even a tendency in this direction. So, nobody has to think about that."
"Franz just says such a sentence and, of course, he triggers very much with it. He didn't ever care about that."
Klopp says he hasn't thought about life after Liverpool and says there is plenty more to achieve with the Anfield club.
[KH_RELATED_NEWS title="Related News"][/KH_RELATED_NEWS]"It's long way until then," he added. "In principle in football it's like that - the opportunity and the timing have to be right.
"But I'm totally happy here and I don't feel I'm any kind of finished at all. Our team has a good age structure, we can still work together for a long time."
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