Manager Jurgen Klopp has warned Liverpool that their Champions league last-16 tie against Inter Milan is far from over, despite his team holding a 2-0 advantage going into Tuesday's second leg at Anfield.
Goals from Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah at the San Siro last month mean the Premier League club are in a great place to qualify for the quarter-finals of a competition they last won in 2019.
But they take on a team against a team sitting second in Serie A and who thrashed bottom club Salernitana 5-0 last Friday leaving Klopp to insist it would be foolish to think the job is done.
“The danger everybody knows about – it's 2-0,” Klopp said on Monday. “I think it's the lead which got turned over most often in the history of football.
“If you get to half-time 2-0 up and you have a team who thinks we are halfway through then you are already on the wrong path.
“It's a much better result than I would have expected before we played there. The game didn't look like we would win it 2-0 for most of the time. It was a really tough tie and a really difficult game to play.
“It's a really good, really experienced team and they don't come here as tourists. I know that they want to chase the game and that's what we want to do because we are not a team who defends results or tries to get through somehow. We want to attack the game again.”
The German also gave an update on the injured trio of Thiago Alcantara, Joel Matip and Robert Firmino, who all missed the 1-0 Premier League win over West Ham United on Saturday.
Inter Milan 0 Liverpool 2: player ratings
“All of them trained fully yesterday,” Klopp said. “We have to see how they react, but Thiago will probably be fine since he was only out for a week. With Joel it was just three or four days, so he should be fine too.
“Bobby has been out for longer, so we have to see if it makes sense to give him just a few more days with proper training.”
Klopp also repeated his call for Premier League clubs to be able to use five substitutes, saying the rule change was necessary to help teams deal with a congested schedule.
“We played Sunday, Wednesday, Saturday and [now] Tuesday. That's a horrible schedule,” Klopp, whose team defeated Chelsea on penalties in the League Cup final last week as they continue their bid for an unprecedented trophy quadruple, said. “It's essential that we go again for five substitutes in the Premier League.
“In one competition we don't have that. It makes so much of a difference. I don't see why it takes so long to understand that. The Premier League has to save their top-class players as well. It's not an advantage.”
