Joyous Klopp reckons they “needed to defend with a lot of passion”

Going into the match, Ajax had a chance to qualify for the next round, at least on paper. The Dutch giants started the match pretty well and could’ve scored in the first half when Steven Berghuis and Dusan Tadic both had big chances but it was Salah who was once again

’s savior as he scored late in the first half.

Klopp’s men then capitalized on their lead by scoring two goals in quick succession at the start of the second half with the goals coming from Darwin Nunez and Harvey Elliot. Speaking about the match, Jurgen Klopp had this to say to BT Sports:

“We had a tough half an hour where Ajax made a lot of pressure and did really well. We needed to defend with a lot of passion. But that is fine, it’s an away game in the Champions League. That’s what can happen. You have to get through these phases. Then we scored a goal that was exceptional, and after that a situation which probably explains Bobby Firmino in a nutshell! He passed that ball and I think Darwin was surprised as well! But it was a great situation. Two-nil would have been great, but we had a good start to the second half, two wonderful goals, and controlled the game from then on. Darwin had a really good game in both directions, played with a big heart, and hopefully we took him off early enough!”

who was once again in fine form, providing an assist to

also stated:

“Darwin was in at half-time really angry at himself, disappointed with himself at not taking that chance. I sat next to him in the changing room, I don’t know if he understood a word I said, but I said I’ll put a cross on your head and you’ll score no problem. So maybe we need to say that more often!”

Liverpool has already secured a place in the knockout stages and with 12 points, are behind Napoli who have 15 points and are all but sure to win this group and qualify as the first team.

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