Klopp Disagrees With Guardiola On Champions League Remarks

By Nigel Philips

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has disagreed with Pep Guardiola’s assertion that winning the Premier League is more important than the Champions League.

Guardiola’s Manchester City pipped Liverpool to the Premier League title by a single point on the final day of the season, and the former Barcelona manager afterwards stated that City’s domestic success, that included Carabao and FA Cup triumphs, will surpass even a Liverpool win in Europe’s premier club competition.

Klopp however believes that Guardiola only made those remarks because he has failed to reach the final of the continental showpiece for some time; last doing so with Barcelona in the 2010/2011 season.

In that time, Klopp has reached the Champions League final twice with Borussia Dortmund in 2013 and Liverpool in 2018, but lost on both occasions to Bayern Munich and Real Madrid respectively.

"Pep has to say that (winning the Premier League is more important than Champions League) as he hasn't been in the Champions League final for a while," said Klopp.

"He is a great manager and deserves all the praise he gets. We tried to win the Premier League this season. City were a better team. But there's another competition we're in."

Following last season’s final loss to Real Madrid in Kiev, Klopp will be hoping for a positive result this time round against Tottenham Hotspurs at Atletico Madrid’s Wanda Metropolitano Stadium on Saturday, and the German has urged his players to show the same spirit against Barcelona in the semi-final second leg that saw them overcome a three-goal deficit to advance.

Klopp added: "Barcelona was the best game I ever saw. Players missing and already 3-0 down, if we'd have won 2-0 or 3-0 it would still have been a fantastic achievement."