Jürgen Klopp, Mo Salah and Jordan Henderson speak ahead of Champions League final - live
Jürgen Klopp, Mohamed Salah and Jordan Henderson speak ahead of Liverpool's huge Champions League final against Real Madrid. Liverpool are hoping for a victory to end the season after narrowly missing out on the Premier League to Manchester City, however, they face notoriously difficult opponents in Real who have won the competition more than any other team. Subscribe to Guardian Football ► http://is.gd/GuardianFootball The Guardian publishes independent journalism, made possible by supporters. Contribute to The Guardian today ► https://support.theguardian.com/contribute Website ► https://www.theguardian.com Facebook ► https://www.facebook.com/theguardian Twitter ► https://twitter.com/guardian Instagram ► https://www.instagram.com/guardian JurgenKlopp Liverpool ChampionsLeague RealMadrid LiverpoolMadrid
Transcript
okay manager manager test one two three one two three one two three test as test test test test test testing on mic number one one two three four five six seven eight nine one day i'll reach ten one two one two one two that's what happens in the profession biggest okay you know yeah there's one coming i think amy do you want to start with vinnie at the front please we all set sorry yep okay uh jordan first of all how is the mood when it looked at one point on sundays if the unlikely would happen and would this season only be regarded as a great season if you yourself go on to lift the european cup for a second time the mood's good to be honest training was very good today i felt the lads i can see the excitement in them ready for the weekend that's that's good of course we're disappointed on sunday with the outcome coming so close and then finding out what was happening in the other games it was tough to take um but i couldn't be more proud of the lads for this season and how we've competed in every single competition would give absolutely everything played the maximum number of games that we could have played um one two trophies so far and got a big opportunity on saturday to win another um so it's all positive here um really good morale in the camp and yeah we just can't wait to get going again um on saturday and give absolutely everything one last time this season and try and get over the line to bring the champions league trophy back to liverpool what do you need that champions league trophy to elevate it to a great season well we won it we won it badly i think other people will judge that for us we couldn't have done any more really if you look at the grand scheme of things in all of the games that we'll play and we'll put ourselves in an unbelievable opportunity for saturday to to go on um being another champions league final and i'm not really focused on what brings that what that brings afterwards i'm all i'm all focused on that game that's all i'm focused on i'm not really interested in um whether that would make it a good season or not or whatever i think for us all focus was on the champions league final and then we'll um we'll assess after that this is kind of one for you both as well because mo has spoken about having a score to settle against madrid after what happened in 2018 so jordan how do you first of all see it yeah we've had a few laughs about that to be fair um he he didn't mean to say that did you know [Laughter] no i think to be honest i can understand from mo's point of view you know it was a very emotional time for him you know to come up in that game and the way he did and and get injured um it was tough it was tough for him it was tough for all of us so i get it um but for me um you don't need any more motivation in the champions league final that's all the focus is on is going and performing and that's all we dreamt of as kids to play and big games and it doesn't get much bigger than the champions league final against madrid um we know it will be really tough you know they're a fantastic side world-class side world-class players all over the pitch so we need we know we need to be at 100 if we're going to have any chance of winning um but that's always the case in football and um and this is no different so yeah we're ready and we'll give it absolutely everything in paris mo how much or how strong is that feeling of revenge motivation for this champions league final well i'm very motivated to the roof i think after what happened especially with madrid last time and also after what happened and sunday everybody's motivated to to win the champions league because this is like unbelievable trophy for us and i think every season will fight for it since i came here um and i think everybody's excited for it i know you've been asked this question a lot this season so i will ask it again would european cup success make you more likely to sign a new contract how close are you to finalizing your future and how likely are you to stay here beyond next season that's three questions that's three different questions i think uh in my mind i don't focus about the contract at the moment it's i don't want to be selfish at all i even said about that like uh two months ago or one month ago it's it's about the team now it's a really important week for us i can say um i'm just focused with the team i want to i want to win the champions league again i want to see handle having the trophy again in his hand and hopefully give it to me after um i'm just focused with the team really i don't want to talk about the contract now because it's like we have a long time i have i'm staying next season for sure that's clear i'm staying next season so let's see after that good luck thank you we'll go to julia next if we can um jordan when when the managers sort of set that mission back in the winter about winning every game remaining unbeaten did you envisage that you would be where you are now as a team with this final and obviously what you achieved in the premier league and the fa cup and the carabao cup as well we always have belief i mean if you we'll go back to the start of the season you know we always say that we want to compete in every single competition it's um it's pretty difficult to do that but i feel as though we couldn't have done any more this season in every single competition that we've played and that comes from the young lads from the academy all the way through to the first teams staff and squad we've given absolutely everything all season and um and we've yeah we've performed very well and and rightly so we've been in um all competitions right until the very end um so yeah saturday is a huge opportunity to finish the season off on a high and we'll do everything in our power to to be able to do that i just wonder from a fun point of view for both of you as well i mean you did you use emojis are you kind of emoji kind of people with messages and stuff like that i just wondered if you had an emoji to sum up the season which kind of emoji it would be she's asking i'll tell you i'm asking both of you i'll tell you i'll tell you after saturday what about you moe okay thank you okay uh carl at the front please just one for jordan john hello um just going back to the final against rail um how you felt personally after that that final uh well yeah a very low point of course in my career to get so close to your dream um and then for it to be taken away right that the last hurdle was pretty tough to take so it was um yeah a pretty tough time in that moment to lose to madrid um but looking back you know i learned a lot from that we all did and we used that experience to be better be stronger and um to win it the year after i made it even more special and just same question tomorrow really i mean some of the sort of things for you and we sort of how you you felt we saw you in the office walking through with you your arm in this thing and stuff you have you remembered you recall that you blocked out or well i think i remember when i went out in after 30 minutes or something that was like the worst moment in my career i was really really down in that time because like playing a champions league i haven't had i had a good season that time and just playing the champions league you came off after 30 minutes like uh the worst thing could happen to any football player and after the game i knew the result because i was in the hospital i came back i knew result from henderson and i was like we can't we cannot lose this way like i really was like i never i never felt that feeling before in football especially the first champions league for all of us or most of us so we lost it to like we were very very disappointed but i think after that summer we came back we talked to each other think hand on me talk in a dressing room if i remember right and they said we go again for everything and we managed to win it the year after so that was also kind of revenge in a way but i think we made it in the best way best way possible your research good form that season do you think you may be targeted in that final as a if they isolate you then they it's almost i stopped the top team i don't know i think we i think as a team we're doing good um i'm having a good season um very good one actually and i just try to to help the team to win games that's the most important thing for me okay we got a pool next please i was just wondering how do you get over the disappointments of that you've had with egypt this season how how did you get stronger and carry on with yours with your form what who would you turn to to get over that well i think i didn't have time really to think much about that i was like i was really disappointed after what happened with the national team then i just flew back to i came back to to england i think a day after i was in training just carry on go play watford game i didn't want to think about it i just wanna i felt in that time like look there is three four other trophy you can win just go for them and i give it a try i give my best and until sunday i think we were close to winter three but we were unlucky because city also a good team they did they did great against villa and they won the game so i just in my mind i'm just realistic a little bit i'm trying to to think positive all the time and i failed after egypt like we have cardboard cup fe cub champions league premier league with a team nothing else you can do so just try to give your best for the team okay we got a dom in the middle please john just two things um one i think you've um nobody's played more games this season than you how are you feeling physically in terms of um obviously you've out the england squad um just talk about that and two when you reach a champions league final it's obviously the third in five years do you approach them now as if like you could both answer this really do you cherish them more now thinking it might be your last because it it it's an incredible run it's not it's not going to continue football isn't like that to you do you both think this may be the last chance and you have to grasp it you never know when the last chance or the last opportunity is so what that's why the next opportunity is the biggest one um and this opportunity on saturday is is huge you know it's it's everything to us as a team as players and that's why i will give it absolutely everything you never know what's going to happen in the future especially in football things can change so quickly um so you've got to cherish every moment and you've got to be ready and whenever the opportunities come but we've worked for a long period of time to get these opportunities that don't just happen um we've worked tirelessly for years together as a group and then when you get the opportunity you need to be ready and and give everything and i know this team's ready to perform and and we'll do that saturday and hopefully that's enough for us to to win the champions league physically physically physically i think again probably the numbers speak for themselves this season um i played a lot of games i felt really good you know more's give us a few tips on recovery which i've learned from and it's helped us a lot um so yeah this season for me personally has been really positive and i've been really fresh for for majority of the season like i said it's probably the most i've ever played number of games wise i think including internationals maybe over 60. so um yeah that's pretty special for me especially when you get into your 30s and people start questioning are you getting too old all the time um it's nice to sort of put out their numbers and and perform as well so um yeah just very grateful that i could stay fit this season and then hopefully like it touched on with england i spoke to to gareth um a few days ago and we spoke about the summer and and what was best for yes for me but also the team and um with the amount of games with the champions league final with other players in the squad that that's going to be playing he felt as though that the best thing for me was to to have a rest have a break and make sure that i was ready and to go again next season um in the best possible condition and and hopefully that will be a positive for liverpool yes but also england when the world cup comes well what what where are the tips you gave me the secrets no i don't i don't i will not talk about that if you want to say it you can say i don't talk about that okay dom if you can pass the mic forward we'll go to carl we'll take the last couple of questions before jurgen comes through first um a player who came in in january lewiston how impressive you've been with him he's been brilliant at me since he came in the door he's he doesn't speak in english so we are not no i think he's uh he's a great player he made a huge difference our our games especially like away uh very other way sorry um he's he's doing good we have a lot of players speak spanish and portuguese as well he's very important player for us and i think he's doing good and john you've got um the parade on sunday so how much motivation does it give you to win that champions league trophy to show off to the fans again on sunday because you couldn't show them the league title off could you so how much are you looking forward to that as well i'm not really thinking about that too much to be honest um before focus was on the game on saturday and um but yeah you're right hopefully we can um we can perform we can do the business in paris and obviously bring the champions league trophy back to liverpool would be extra special and something that the team and the fans deserve i feel but we know that's never easy it's going to be really tough and we've just got to be fully focused on the game and and give everything like we have all season and see what happens okay carl if you can pass the microphone back we'll take the final question there please jordan i spoke to phil thompson earlier this week he said that lifting the european cup with liverpool as the captain was the greatest moment in his sporting career where did it rank for you and what would it mean to do it a second time yeah i would say winning the champions league in madrid was probably the yeah biggest moment in my career so far for sure the more special um [Music] to get over the line to to finally win the champions league to missing out so close on the on the year before um yeah it was a really emotional time for me for the lads for everyone involved so i definitely put it there as number one in my career so far um and that's why i have even more motivation to to sort of get that feeling back again hopefully on saturday that would be nice and um and we can celebrate it again i'm sure you guys know the history but 1981 in paris liverpool against real madrid alan kennedy scored who's going to be your unlikely match winner this time hopefully me okay great well leave it there guys thank you thanks so so so foreign so wow thank you okay guys vinnie i think you're gonna need the microphone amy i don't know kate if you could bring the microphone over to vinnie first two well that's well first two only even if that's okay and then we'll go around the room and if people could hoist hands so we can uh get the mics through that'll be fantastic then jorgen the good news we saw fabinho and joe gomez training the bad news there was no tiago out there so how serious is the injury we're taking it as a bad sign at the minute what chances he got of playing on saturday i only met him now inside a good chance so he will be training this afternoon he did some stuff this morning was not planned that he's doing this session with the players and in a moment it looks like he can be part of training tomorrow that would be pretty helpful obviously and then we go from there so um it's it's surprise surprisingly good then after the game i was not really positive about it but we got news then at night already it's not doesn't look that bad and from from there we went and now we will see but it's i can imagine that there were things now three days before a game cannot train yeah but we just have to be sure that we do the right stuff in the right moment and that's what we try congratulations on your manager of the year awards as well thank you given the way sunday went what job have you had to do though as the manager to pick the players up once again is it similar to 2019 or different because sunday was that bit more dramatic it's different and not different because at the same time because um on sunday it was harder but just because of the the script the story of the of the match day so if fcd would have been three and up after 12 minutes and then it's a completely normal situation what you have to could expect and these kind of things but with being tunneled down the typical drama we are kind of involved and us obviously [Music] struggling to score the second goal um so and that made it then directly after the game obviously obviously slightly harder um but since then it's all it's all the same um we are met this morning again obviously we are all in a good mood um life is like this if you are healthy what the boys obviously are um life gives you opportunities again and again in this case it's a german league final so we see that nobody feels the pain from sunday anymore we are really just looking forward to this game against incredible strong opponent most experienced opponent you can probably get in this competition but we are really looking forward to it obviously outside of the club it'll be regarded as a great season if you were able to add the european cup i know you will look at it as a great season anyway because of the levels that you've reached this season but what is your message to the players to effectively go out and grasp this opportunity now no it would be without that chance if i would be a great season with the champions league winning the champions it would be a fantastic season easy as that so um there are still levels that's absolutely fine um we don't we don't think because we won our two competitions and and were close in the third commission that this um yeah wouldn't we wouldn't care about that that's of course not the case no no it's um you never know how often you will reach the chemistry fund you better use the few opportunities you get so for us it's not really special the third time in the last five years that's really special with this group and we have made we obviously had all downs and ups in our in our own um germany history and we will face the team so we were the last five years three times there i don't know exactly the number but real madrid in the last 10 years won it probably five times or at least four times so that makes it really special so that's how i said and a lot of these players were always involved in these kind of games so um yeah it will be a great game i really think the world will be red or white on this match day um and that's exactly how it should be it's it's real um historically two teams were always um strong in this competition and now in the presence as well which is a good sign competing with this kind of calibers is the best thing you can do but obviously we are not going there just to be part of that's clear but um anyway do we want to have an honest uh i can't wait to go there and not because i think i'd rather let them kick them or whatever not at all i know how difficult it will be it's just having the chance to go again for it is really special thank you bbc mercy side we'll go across there and then we'll go to the are you there who sat behind chris mckenna for the tv hi erican um far the last six games you conceded first but your team has come back to get results you can't really do that against real madrid side because they can make one million to two million to three nil can't they yeah we never wanted in the other games but s