What Jurgen Klopp told Liverpool players the morning before Barcelona comeback – Liverpool FC
James Milner has revealed what Jurgen Klopp told the players on the morning of Liverpool’s legendary comeback against Barcelona in the Champions League.
Cast your minds back to the morning of May 7, 2019. Fans were waking up after a night when Man City came agonisingly close to dropping points in the title race.
Instead, Vincent Kompany’s remarkable winner against Leicester all but sealed their triumph.
With the Reds needing to beat Barcelona by more than three clear goals to reach the Champions League final later that day, you would have been forgiven for feeling demoralised.
The same could be said for the team, but manager Klopp acted quickly to get the team’s heads straight. On Football’s Greatest Pod, Milner explained what the mood was like that morning.
“We needed City to drop points the night before and Vini – seen him do it a hundred times in training [and] slice it into the bushes – he decides to slice it into the top corner this time,” the Englishman said.
“We came in the day of the game and the manager said: ‘Does anyone want to say anything about what happened last night? No, right, here we go’.”
Despite the previous night’s disappointment, May 7 would go on to be one of the most amazing dates in Liverpool’s history, and Milner spoke of how the crowd and players worked in tandem.
“I think the tone was set actually [when] Suarez – obviously an incredible player for Liverpool, the fans loved him – [was] standing over the kickoff and getting booed and whistled,” the former Red continued.
“I think it was just a reminder ‘not today mate, you’re not one of us today’.”
When asked by Jeff Stelling about the atmosphere at Anfield that night, Milner replied that it was “incredible.”
“You know from the start, you look at the Kop and the banners and the flags up, You’ll Never Walk Alone – it was important,” he recalled.
“They’re always up for the nights anyway, but also it’s important they see that you’re at it.
“Can you get the first tackle in? Can you get the first press and get the fans with you?
“That was always important for us that we had to start well to get them really with you and let the other team feel the atmosphere, feel our pressure and think ‘this isn’t an ordinary game, this isn’t gonna be something we’ve experienced before’.”
Liverpool, of course, went on to win the match 4-0 and lift the trophy in Madrid after beating Tottenham. It was a story about Jordan Henderson‘s celebration at Anfield that Milner recounted, though.
The 38-year-old recalled: “I remember Hendo actually had a bad knee I think, he was on a bike at half-time.
“So [we had] players hanging on with injuries and things like that, and the final whistle went.
“We were keeping it in the corner; I’ve turned round and Hendo’s gone and knee-slided to the fans and it got caught in the ground, and he was like ‘why have I just done that?’.
“And he’s like crying in pain from his knee, not ‘cos we’d got to the final.”
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Thankfully, the captain was able to recover quickly enough to play in the final, starting in midfield alongside Georginio Wijnaldum and Fabinho.
Milner came on in the 62nd minute and helped see the game out as the Reds won 2-0.
