The Reds boss admits neither side were at their best in the decider but singled out the moment he knew his side had clinched the trophy
As the one-year anniversary of Liverpool‘s Champions League final win over Tottenham edges closer, Jurgen Klopp has revealed the one memory from the night that stands out above the rest.
The German manager had yet to win a single piece of silverware with the Reds before that point but finally broke the drought as he guided his side to a 2-0 win.
Goals from Mohamed Salah and Divock Origi clinched the victory, and it was the second goal that Klopp remembers most fondly.
“The wonderful Divock Origi goal, it was not our best game, it was not the best game of Tottenham,” Klopp told BT Sport.
“It was a final, we had to learn that as a team that we needed to win these kind of average games.
“We needed to accept that if we do not perform at our best, then we need to do other things to win.
“When Divock scored the goal, I knew on the night that it was enough so we would win. That was my biggest memory. It was job done, and I really loved it.”
Having lost the Champions League final with Borussia Dortmund in 2013, Liverpool’s win allowed Klopp to fulfill his goal of returning to a decider and walking away victorious.
“I know that it was one of the greatest nights of my life, I said it after the game as well,” he said.
“The immediate first feeling after the game was relief 100 per cent. I felt directly for [Tottenham manager] Mauricio [Pochettino], went to him, gave him a hug and it’s like a strange situation where you are in between being really happy and really feeling for another person. Because I knew exactly that day how he felt.
“But after that, the next few days were some of the best of my life, 100 per cent. Because it’s so big, it’s so massive. I tried it with different teams so often and I knew as a human being reaching a final is big but without winning it’s not the same, and it was a while ago that I felt I needed the full package by being in the final and winning the final so it was a very, very special moment.”
While a personal triumph of sorts, Klopp was quick to savour the moment with his family, who he admits suffer right along with him when his side wins or loses big games.
“I’ve forgot the number already but I think I lost five or six finals before that so you can imagine,” Klopp said.
“I’m a professional football manager so one of the things I have to accept is that you can lose games so I learnt that pretty early and for family it’s really difficult. They’re involved in it all, after the Barcelona game I met my two sons after we lost 3-0 in Barcelona, and they were really down, I was in a good mood actually because we played well, but they were really down because for them it’s all about winning.
“I’m more about performing as well so I was fine but they weren’t so I knew that it means the world to them. For my wife, my two boys, my sisters, my mother it was so big [to win the final].”
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