Liverpool Feb 16 (BUS): Jurgen Klopp and 15 other coaches who are still in the Champions League this season have one less thing to think about when preparing their teams for matches in the knockout stage.
This is the first season in 57 years that the away goals rule – a method for determining home and away matches in European club competitions if necessary – will not be used, according to the Associated Press.
UEFA announced the abolition of the rule last year, saying it had outlived its usefulness and prevented home teams from attacking for fear of giving their opponents an advantage.
Therefore, when the Round of 16 begins this week, teams should – in theory – play more freely in the steeplechase.
Not that Klopp, who leads Liverpool into the first leg at Inter Milan on Wednesday, will change his tactics much as a result.
“It doesn’t have a huge impact on the way we play,” Klopp said in a video call on Tuesday. “We don’t go there to somehow get past the game – we try to play our best game and win it.”
However, not all managers are as attacking as Klopp. After all, he can count on some of the deadliest strikers in world football – like Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Diogo Jota – to score goals wherever Liverpool plays, which other coaches don’t have.
A 0-0 away draw in the first leg of two games was once seen as a very positive result. Now, it probably won’t be as much.
“Actually, I liked the base – I was a supporter of it before,” Klopp said. “I watched the Champions League for a long time and liked this rule. I don’t know exactly why they canceled it but it’s gone and it’s okay.”
As a result, fans can expect more penalty kicks this season and in future seasons, as the away goals base no longer hovers above the overall tied scores. There are perhaps fewer chaotic endings for the second games as well, as in the case of Tottenham’s stunning return to Ajax in 2019.
Liverpool will certainly hope the progress will be smooth in the quarter-finals, although Klopp considers Inter – defending champions and currently second in their league title defense – the best team in Italy.
Between the two matches, Liverpool will go into the League Cup final against Chelsea at Wembley. Indeed, the Reds are still vying for all four titles this season, as they reached the fifth round of the FA Cup and are second in the Premier League, nine points behind Manchester City with a game in hand.
For Trent Alexander-Arnold, the attacking right-back for Liverpool, one trophy a season is the minimum a team should win.
The England international said that Liverpool, the six-time European champion, is ready to win any tournament, and maliciously referred to City’s failure to win the Champions League despite Pep Guardiola’s team being among the top candidates every year.
“We are not disappointed that we haven’t won enough,” Alexander-Arnold said of Liverpool winning four titles since Klopp’s arrival in 2015, including the Champions League in 2019 and the Premier League in 2020. You feel the jackpots we’ve won are the biggest and best you can get.
“We didn’t dig, but you look at an amazing Manchester City team – they couldn’t win the Champions League. They won twice in the Premier League but couldn’t win the Champions League. We’ve won both over the past few years. It just shows that we were capable. to do so in both competitions.”
Alexander-Arnold said there were more “expectations” about Liverpool.
“With the team we have, the team, the manager, we have to win titles,” he said. “We expect it from ourselves, and if we don’t, that’s a huge disappointment.
“We are not at that point anymore where we are happy to reach the finals which is a bit of a surprise and it is over. There is an expectation now to do that every season.”