Jurgen Klopp warns Liverpool they still have 'work to do' to reach Champions League final
- Planet Sport writer
- 27 April 2022
Liverpool look to be in control of the tie after the first leg, but Jurgen Klopp has called for focus from his side.
Jurgen Klopp has warned his Liverpool players that they still have 'work to do' despite beating Villarreal 2-0 at Anfield in the Champions League semi-final.
Sadio Mane added to Pervis Estupinan's own goal to ease to a relatively comfortable win for Klopp's men, who dominated throughout.
The tie will be completed next week in Spain with the winner set to face Manchester City or Real Madrid in the final, but Klopp says complacency is a big 'danger' for Liverpool.
"It is a dangerous scoreline," he said. "How much work is left to do? The full work is still to do. Nothing has happened yet.
"To be 2-0 at half-time you have to be 100 per cent in the right mood and play the second half like we played the first half.
"We know the other game will be a tricky atmosphere for us. These (Villarreal) players saw that tonight, this coach, they fight for it with all they have.
"And what I like is that we also fight with all we have. It's always the same. If they beat us with a result that takes them to the final, then they deserve it; if not, then we deserve it. That's how the competition is.
"But everyone could see we fought with all we have. We played a really good game, now in six days we play again and we have to make sure we are ready.
"We are 2-0 up and that's better than before the game but we know we're not through. So keep going, no problem."
Villarreal boss Unai Emery, meanwhile, was unable to deny that Liverpool were worthy winners of the game, although he is hoping for a turnaround in the second leg.
"They were better than us, they have been better over the 90 minutes," he said.
4 – Jürgen Klopp has won each of his four home matches in Champions League semi-finals – this is the joint-best 100% win rate at home in semi-finals by any manager in the competition (Marcello Lippi and Ottmar Hitzfeld also 4/4). Expert. #LIVVIL #UCL pic.twitter.com/3tf69sRWhQ
— OptaFranz (@OptaFranz) April 27, 2022
"We wanted to play a better game, create better chances on goal for ourselves, but we needed to be on the defensive a lot.
"We wanted to win, we weren't able to. We wanted to draw, we weren't able to.
"We wanted to keep the scoreline down to 1-0 and we didn't. We wanted to get on the scoresheet and we weren't able to do that.
"We didn't create any chances at all, we never got near their goal. Two-nil is a clear, obvious result, a deserved result.
"It could have been a worse hill to climb. The only thing now is 2-0 still gives us a chance to have a different performance at home. We are still alive."
