Dhe Liverpool Football Club has been playing almost non-stop this season. That’s the price of success. Jürgen Klopp’s team plays all possible games in all four competitions because they made it to the final in each of the cup rounds. She has already won the League Cup after five games in the final against Chelsea. In the FA Cup, the English DFB Cup, she is in the final on May 14, again against Thomas Tuchel’s team; it is the sixth game in this competition. And Liverpool has come so far in the Champions League that they can now play for the title in the final duel.
Twelve appearances have been necessary to get there so far, the final on May 28 in Paris against Real Madrid or Manchester City will be the 13th game of this campaign. In addition, there are 38 games in the Premier League, in which it is a head-to-head race against Manchester City for the championship. That makes a total of 62 games, for national players there are also the assignments for their countries. The protagonists have often pointed out that the game plan is too dense. Little has changed. Liverpool is an example of the immense strain – and how to deal with it successfully.
On Tuesday night, Klopp’s side almost brought the season to an early end in those breathless final weeks of the season. Participation in the final of the premier class was on the brink. After a 2-0 home win in the first leg a week ago, the favorites were 2-0 down at half-time and looked helpless in the whirlwind Villarreal FC, who made their tiny Estadio de la Cerámica their big stage. And so the question arose in the analysis at Liverpool FC: What was going on before the break? And right after that: What happened during the break?
Klopp answered the questions on the microphone at Prime Video in a relaxed manner, because in the end everything went well from his point of view. “Cool, we’re really happy,” he said. “The second half was better than the first.” That was obvious. Villarreal goals from Boulaye Dia (3′) and Francis Coquelin (41′) were followed in the second half by Liverpool goals from Fabinho (62′), Luis Díaz (67′) and Sadio Mané (74′). All in all, made a 5: 2 for Klopp’s selection in both duels. But the way there was more difficult than expected after the one-sided thing at Anfield.
Long list of defects from Klopp
On the one hand, this was due to FC Villarreal, who, after the rabbit-footed tactics in the first leg, turned up the heat and took the lead early on. “Now that wasn’t in the plan. We didn’t stay cool either. They made steam. The little stadium was on fire‘ Klopp said, listing Liverpool’s shortcomings: ‘We didn’t get into the game, we weren’t flexible up front, we didn’t move well enough in midfield, we left defensive holes, crazy. We didn’t have a rhythm.” In short: “We had eleven problems in the first half, if you will.” So that was before the break.
And what happened during the break? The Spaniards’ second goal just before half-time visibly shocked Liverpool, but psychologically it might not have been as bad as Klopp thought: “It’s not my favorite result, but actually it’s okay because we’re awake now. We can’t go on like this. 2-0 wasn’t a catastrophe.” And so he didn’t raise his voice at the break, but instead grabbed the tactics board and stayed positive: “The stupid thing about a half-time like this is that it’s bad. The good thing is, it’s easy to improve on.” So you thought, “Let’s try that now that we’re there.”
And how they were there after the restart. Some spectators may have thought that the teams not only changed sides on the pitch, but also their jerseys in the second half. Because suddenly Liverpool was dominant, confident and successful, while Villarreal badly reduced. “All of a sudden we started playing football, we found the space all of a sudden. We brought in Luis Diaz, so we were a lot more flexible overall. We moved much better. I’m really happy,” said the German coach. “The way we reacted was special.”
The reaction was the increase of ten players and the substitution of one player. Díaz came on for Diogo Jota, Mané moved from the left to the middle in the three-man attack. That worked, because the Colombian, who only came to Liverpool from FC Porto in January, was instrumental in the turnaround. The 25-year-old whirlwind presented the tired defense with major problems with his ideas, his technique and his passion for football. A spectacular side kick was unsuccessful, later he tried his brains and made it 2:2.
It goes on in breathless rhythm. Tottenham, Aston Villa, Chelsea, Southampton, Wolverhampton and Manchester City or Real Madrid are the opponents in the final spurt of a season that can end like never before for an English team: with four titles, the quadruple. Klopp has been bothered with this term and the question about it for some time. And he always waves it off, including on Tuesday: “It’s just nonsense with this quadruple crap. We play every game that was possible. We all play finals. There’s a reason nobody’s won the quadruple yet.”
For Liverpool, however, that remains possible after the victory at Bayern’s conqueror. It is Klopp’s fourth Champions League final, his third with Liverpool. In 2018 he lost to Real Madrid, the following year there was a win over Tottenham. The anticipation is great: “It feels like it’s the first time,” said Klopp. The plan should be the same: “I told the guys before the game I wanted to read the headline: ‘The mentality monsters were in town’.” They were there. And so there was only one conclusion: After the break, things really got going. And it’s far from over.
