Jurgen Klopp revives famous message as Liverpool aim for new European miracle

Jurgen Klopp has revived the message he gave his Liverpool players ahead of their memorable comeback victory against Barcelona as they aim for another European miracle.

The Reds are in Bergamo seeking to overturn a 3-0 first-leg defeat in their Europa League quarter-final against Atalanta following a chastening Anfield evening last Thursday.

Only once before have Liverpool fought back from such a deficit when they shocked Barcelona in the Champions League semi-final on the way to winning the competition five years ago.

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And while dismissing suggestions of already having a speech prepared to rouse his players before they step out at the Gewiss Stadium, Klopp will lean partly on events of 2019 as inspiration.

"I wrote it already!" he joked when asked about a teamtalk. "I usually don’t prepare these things like that, especially not the day before or four years before whatever. But definitely, nothing about these things are in the press conference before. (Before Barcelona) I remember I said, ‘If we fail, then let’s fail in the most beautiful way’. And that’s exactly how I see it again.

"We want to win the game. If we want to win, we better play good. If we play good, we have a chance to win it. Then we will see. It is exactly like that. After the game (last week), everyone in the stadium thought, ‘that’s it’.

"But since then, a week later, I don’t think everybody thinks it’s already decided. But we are here. We can be good. Obviously we can be not so good as well. Let’s see what we can put on the pitch tomorrow.

"But my team meeting will not happen in front of the world in the press conference. If we win, the players will find a reason to tell the world what I said, and if we lose no-one will want to hear."

Since the 4-0 victory over Barcelona, several players have given their take on what was said by Klopp towards his players ahead of a remarkable turnaround. But the Reds boss instead put the focus purely on an improved performance from Liverpool after last week's first leg.

"What is similar (to Barcelona)? The result definitely," said the Reds boss. " The performance not really. We played at Barcelona and they were exceptional but we lost 3-0 and no-one knew how. We lost at home and now we are away so that's a massive difference. It is not about comparing. We are here and will try to win the game tomorrow, that's all. I think that's what we should do. We will see if that's possible.

"A lot of moments we had last week were really good moments and we were unlucky but they won completely deserved. We didn't play extremely well. Let's start with a much better performance and and try to win the game and we will see how much time is left at the end.

"I am long enough in this business to know it is two legs, it is over when it is over. We are still allowed to play tomorrow, we are 100,000% focused. We are only here for playing football – but I cannot win this game in this press conference today."