Jurgen Klopp savoured the return of “European royalty football” as he urged Liverpool to get the result against Inter Milan in Italy to ensure they don’t have to rely on the Anfield factor to book their place in the Champions League quarter-finals.
The Serie A champions host the 2020 Premier League winners on Wednesday with Liverpool bidding to reach a third Champions League final in five seasons. It is a fixture with a controversial past, with Inter beating Liverpool in the 1965 European Cup semi-final in a tie when the referee was subsequently accused of taking bribes.
But Klopp believes the past should not be a burden, explaining: “I think you have to use history but not suffer from it. Two big clubs, two incredibly successful clubs, but that is what the Champions League should be. We just know we face an incredible strong team and that is difficult enough.
"We don’t have to put history on top of that. Us against Inter is massive: proper European royalty football. Inter is a top-class team: top-class players, top-class manager. You cannot see it in the table but they are probably the best team in Italy again this year. It is one of these games, if I wasn’t going to be there, I would watch it, definitely.”
Liverpool have already won at San Siro this season, beating AC Milan 2-1 with a weakened team in December as they got a perfect group-stage record for the first time.
“It was incredible but it doesn’t help us now,” said Klopp. “In the years we went to the final we had pretty average group-stage results, we came through pretty much on one wheel, but it didn’t hold us back from trying to play a proper knockout stage.”
The away goals rule has been scrapped and while Klopp is unsure how much of a difference it will make and is adamant his side never based their first-leg tactics around it, he hopes to get the kind of win to ensure Liverpool do not require a special European night at Anfield on 8 March.
“We don’t want to rely too much on Anfield,” he explained. “It is fine when we need it and Anfield can push us but we don’t want to rely on it.”
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Klopp has the luxury of choice with what he believes is his best-ever squad. Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane have returned from the African Cup of Nations and slotted straight back in.
“Both are a force of nature, hopefully they stay like that,” Klopp said.
Meanwhile, new signing Luis Diaz has made a huge impression on his manager with his enthusiasm.
“He is an incredible player,” Klopp added. “His joy and love for football is so obvious. When you see him training, he cannot stop smiling. I have never seen a player like that. It’s crazy. I have a good feeling it will be a really nice story for Luis and Liverpool.”
He can also call upon Roberto Firmino and Diogo Jota in attack and those options mean Liverpool’s players will have to adjust to more of a squad-rotation system.
“I cannot play always the same line-up just because we won the last game,” Klopp said. “The boys have to deal with it as well. It is something we have to learn., We never had it before. It is pretty exciting.”
For the first time under Klopp, Liverpool are still in all four competitions at this stage of the season and right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold said: “One trophy a season is the minimum we need to be achieving. We are not in that phase now where we are happy just to get to finals and it is a day out.”
