Jurgen Klopp Braced For Tricky Challenge As Liverpool Eye Istanbul Return
16th September 2019
Klopp's side start their bid to win a seventh European Cup with a trip to Napoli for their Group E opener on Tuesday
- Jurgen Klopp has warned Liverpool that retaining the Champions League will be even harder than their incredible march to victory in Madrid last season
- The Reds have reached the last two Champions League finals, beating Tottenham in the Spanish capital in June after losing to Real Madrid 12 months earlier.
- But Klopp believes Liverpool face a daunting task to make it to the final in Istanbul's Ataturk Stadium -- a venue which carries extra resonance for the club after they won the 2005 title with an astonishing comeback against AC Milan
LONDON, United Kingdom-
Jurgen Klopp has warned Liverpool that retaining the Champions League will be
even harder than their incredible march to victory in Madrid last season.
Klopp's side start their bid to win a seventh European Cup
with a trip to Napoli for their Group E opener on Tuesday.
The Reds have reached the last two Champions League finals,
beating Tottenham in the Spanish capital in June after losing to Real Madrid 12
months earlier.
But Klopp believes Liverpool face a daunting task to make it
to the final in Istanbul's Ataturk Stadium -- a venue which carries extra
resonance for the club after they won the 2005 Champions League with an
astonishing comeback against AC Milan in the same stadium.
Before Liverpool can dream of emulating Steven Gerrard and
company's triumph by the banks of the Bosphorus, Klopp knows they will have to
run the gauntlet in what he expects to be a fiercely contested tournament.
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Napoli are expected to pose the sternest test to Liverpool
in a group which also includes unfancied Salzburg and Genk.
Carlo Ancelotti's team came within a whisker of ending
Liverpool's European campaign in the group stage last season when Alisson
Becker's superb late save denied Arkadiusz Milik to preserve a 1-0 win at
Anfield that sent the Reds into the last 16 at the expense of Napoli.
Even if Liverpool should advance to the knockout rounds
without so much drama this season, Klopp is wary of the restocked superpowers
certain to be lying in wait in the latter stages.
"I will have no problem with it (reaching the final) if
it happens again, but at this moment I am not too sure it will," he said
when the draw was made in August.
"We have the same chance like everyone else, but that
is all, and I don't see us, the English teams, dominating. I really think a lot
of teams have a good chance.
"Look at the squad Borussia Dortmund has and tell me we
are stronger than them. That is incredible. They can make five changes and you
think: 'Really, they didn't play last week? Why?' There are a lot of quality
teams.
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"Juventus will be there, PSG will be there. Real
Madrid? Do you think they gave up already? Bayern Munich now finally brought in
Perisic and Coutinho which is a big boost."
While Liverpool will always have a special relationship with
the Champions League after the club's dominance of the competition in the 1970s
and 1980s, it is not hard to believe that some die-hard Kopites would happily
exchange their continental supremacy for a season of domestic bliss.
Having erased the pain of that 2018 final defeat against
Real, Liverpool's main goal this term is to end the club's long wait to win the
English title.