Jürgen Klopp has said Liverpool require bravery and a better performance against Borussia Dortmund to reach the Europa League semi-finals at the expense of his former club.
Liverpool host Thomas Tuchel’s team in the quarter-final second leg on Thursday with a slender advantage after last week’s 1-1 draw in Germany. Klopp has played down the significance of Divock Origi’s away goal, claiming the Anfield atmosphere will be “a bigger advantage”, but admits it is Liverpool’s responsibility to dictate the noise levels with a display of courage.
“It is always about being brave but especially against a high-quality team,” the Liverpool manager said. “With each pass and offensive action your opponents grow in confidence and, if you just try to defend, your’s becomes smaller and smaller, so it’s really important you have your moments. Being brave is one of the most important things you can be in football, and certainly tomorrow night too.”
Dortmund were heavily criticised in the German media for a nervous first-leg display and fell further behind Bayern Munich in the race for the Bundesliga title with a 2-2 draw against Schalke on Sunday, when Tuchel rested eight players in readiness for Liverpool. No German team has beaten Liverpool at Anfield in 17 European ties or scored more than one goal.
“That’s a surprise to me,” said Klopp of the Dortmund criticism. “I don’t think we went to the limit of our performance last week and I don’t think Dortmund did either. Dortmund are having a great season regularly. We’ve had a number of highlights but perhaps lacked consistency. It is wrong to look at the negatives.
“I think Dortmund will perform to the best of their ability. It is clear that Dortmund didn’t have as easy a time last week as many people expected, it didn’t turn out that way. We tried to create chances, you can’t just defend against them, and will try again. It is about getting the balance right. We have to forget about last week’s game.
“Tomorrow’s game will have another different attitude and we certainly won’t be waving a white flag. Dortmund can certainly play better but so can we. We know we’ll have to play better this time to go through.”
Klopp claimed to be undecided on his starting line-up against a Dortmund team that is unbeaten in 18 matches and has won five of seven away games in Europe this season. Origi is again expected to start following an impressive display at the Westfalenstadion.
The Liverpool manager added: “I don’t think we’re under particular pressure. We have a great chance. We respect how strong Dortmund are but we are in a position where we are looking to go further. That’s not a question of pressure. We have a great chance of getting to the semi. Not many teams get a chance to win a trophy, there are not too many competitions to win, and we are in a great position. That’s not pressure, it’s an opportunity.”
