Madrid: A first trophy in seven years for Liverpool, and a first win in seven finals for Jurgen Klopp. The European Cup is heading back to Anfield for the sixth time and their manager is confident there is much more to come.
A beaming Klopp revealed after Saturday’s 2-0 final victory over Tottenham Hotspur in Madrid that he had received a congratulatory phone call from Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola. Three weeks ago, the Reds were denied a first league title in 30 years by City, despite losing just once and racking up 97 points, but winning the Champions League makes up for that disappointment.
“We promised each other already that we will kick our butts next year again,” Klopp said of his brief exchange with Guardiola in between speaking to the world’s media at the Metropolitano Stadium. “We will go for everything and we’ll see if we get something.” It was a sentiment shared by centre-back Virgil van Dijk as he spoke after being named man of the match in the final.
“In July when we start again, everyone starts on nil and everyone’s working towards their goals,” he declared. “Obviously we want to challenge for every trophy if possible. We have the squad for it, but you’ve also seen it this year, you still have to do it, and hopefully, we can challenge Manchester City again next season for the title, because I don’t think they will go anywhere, so we won’t go anywhere either.”
Liverpool had won nothing at all since defeating Cardiff City on penalties in the League Cup final in 2012. A trophy, but not on the same level as this. After losing the Europa League final in 2016 and last year’s Champions League final against Real Madrid, Liverpool seized their chance this time thanks to Mohamed Salah’s early penalty and Divock Origi’s late strike. This was already a club reborn under the German’s management and such a tangible reward was needed, three and a half years on from his arrival on Merseyside.
“I’m interested really in development, but I get it, we have to win things, and so it’s really important that people don’t ask now all the time about not winning things,” he said. “Now we won something, and we will carry on, we want to win things, 100 percent. This is only the start for this group, it’s a wonderful age group, they still have the best times in their career still ahead of them, so that’s big.”
“Before the game, I looked at a picture of last year and we were so disappointed to lose the final,” Salah said on Saturday night. “I was very disappointed. It motivated me to win. When you know how it feels to lose, you say to yourself ‘Let’s go and win that’.”
Salah had been less explosive in recent months, perhaps because opponents are warier, or perhaps just because sustaining those levels of performance was always going to be a tall order. But in many ways, this final became Salah’s final, as soon as Moussa Sissoko thrust his arm out to point to a team-mate and Sadio Mane’s cross struck him after 23 seconds. At the end, as Liverpool’s fans behind him roared, plumes of red filling the air, Salah arched his neck back and looked to the sky.
“I think our game is more mental,” he said. “You have to believe in yourself and you can see the players were believing in themselves. Everything happens for a reason and last year when we lost the final, I think we were meant to come back and win it this time.”