Jurgen Klopp: Man City, Chelsea and Arsenal tests will define our season after Champions League exit | Football News

Jurgen Klopp has urged his Liverpool side to focus on their decisive Premier League game after exiting the Champions League with a 6-2 aggregate defeat to Real Madrid.

Liverpool needed a miracle to reach the quarter-finals after a 5-2 defeat at Anfield, but Karim Benzema’s late strike sealed another deserved victory for the defending champions.

The defeat means Liverpool’s only remaining target this season is finishing in the top four of the Premier League in order to qualify for next year’s Champions League.

Klopp’s side sit six points behind fourth-placed Tottenham after losing 1-0 against Bournemouth on Saturday and do not play again until their Premier League clash with Manchester City, after the upcoming international break on April 1.

The match at the Etihad Stadium is followed by crucial meetings with resurgent Chelsea and leaders Arsenal, both of whom are alive. Sky Sports on April 4 and April 9 respectively.

“If you want to win competitions, you have to be exceptional, and we weren’t tonight, so the result is fair,” Klopp said of Wednesday’s defeat at the Bernabeu in a press conference.

“But of course, atcompetition, and we want to be part of every year, and that is a massive task now.

“When we come back from the international break, we have a proper week of football, with three games, City, Chelsea, Arsenal, which will determine what we do.

“People will say we lost at Bournemouth, but this week is really important.

“So we have to hope the boys come back healthy, in the right shape, and we will try.”

After exiting the domestic cup competition, Liverpool’s elimination from the Champions League ensured a trophyless season, but Klopp insisted he would give everything to finish in the Premier League to achieve his goal.

“Our job is to finish everything from this season,” he said.

“It’s been strange, just the last two games, a sensational performance against Man Utd, a very good football team, and a very bad performance against Bournemouth, again a good football team, but we shouldn’t lose this game.

“That puts us back under more pressure. Three points, and I think everyone will really feel it, smell our breath if you like.”

Klopp: The right team passed

Klopp was big on the loss at the Bernabeu, admitting his side fell short of the “special” performance needed to overturn a three-goal deficit and saying Madrid deserved a place in the quarter-finals.

“Being 5-2 down is obviously not a good result and if you want to qualify, you have to have a special performance, and we couldn’t put on a special performance on the pitch tonight,” he said. BT sports.

“It was an open game but Madrid had the better chances. Alli had to make two sensational saves.

“The right team has gone through what we have to admit. Madrid controlled the game, we gave them the chance to control it. A knock-out stage like this, there could be 500,000 different ways to go out, it was ours tonight. It’s not that expected but achieved. Now we have to keep moving forward.

“It takes time. If we can score in the first half, it can give us extra motivation, but hypothetically, we will never know. Madrid is the better team and won the match. In three rounds, they are better. team, that’s how you go to the next round.

“If you draw at home and play the game we played tonight, then we will also come out. We can’t come here and expect you to get something. We are preparing a special show but we can’t put it on the field tonight. It’s apparently the best part is over.”

‘Madrid defeat shows how far Liverpool have come’

John Cross Daily Mirror on Sky Sports News Back Page:

“I think last season, even the season before, you really wanted Liverpool to fight back and do another miracle, like they did in the past under Jurgen Klopp, but tonight there was no sign of that.

“The feeling is that they gave up short. We never felt the energy and intensity that we expected to start the fight. They had some chances, but it was Madrid who had all the play and possession.

“To be honest, it’s a bit of a letdown. There’s not much of a story there and it reflects to me how far they’ve fallen, considering they were the two best clubs in Europe last season.

“It was a very close final last year but Liverpool are now out of the Champions League and their best hope of getting back into the competition is the top four and they really need it to start the rebuild that Jurgen Klopp wants.”