Jurgen Klopp has revealed that he will not be thinking about revenge when the Reds face Real Madrid in the quarter final of the UEFA Champions League.
Liverpool are in Spain for the first leg of their quarter final tie against Los Blancos on Tuesday night.
Tuesday’s showdown at the Santiago Bernabeu will be the first since the sides met in an eventful 2018 final, which Madrid won 3-1 to lift the trophy for a third season running.
And with nearly three years having past since Gareth Bale scored twice to down Liverpool, Klopp says both he and his squad have drawn a line under the defeat.
“We are not on a revenge tour here. Life is like this. I don’t believe too much in revenge, but it would be nice to get through,” he said at Monday’s pre-match news conference.
“We feel in a good moment in the Premier League. Now we hope to keep that momentum. That would be very helpful.
“Our motivation is at the highest level because it is the Champions League and we want to go to the next round, it has nothing to do with 2018.
“But when we got the draw, because it is the first time that we played them since then, I remembered the game.”
One of the big talking points in that game was Sergio Ramos’ early challenge on Mohamed Salah that forced the Egypt forward off injured.
Klopp added: “I said it after that game if someone asked me in a press conference maybe a month later if I would invite Sergio Ramos to my 60th birthday party I would say no.
“Now, I would think about it. It’s not because he’s a great footballer but I said I didn’t like what happened that night, for us it was a strange night.
“It was long ago and so I can’t get that feeling of anger back so I don’t even try. What I try is to prepare my team for tomorrow to show how good we are as a football team.”
“It will take a lot to beat Madrid. They are the team with the most titles in this competition, so they are used to the knockout stages and we are going to need to be at our best.”
Liverpool have lost each of their last three games against Madrid in the Champions League – only against Benfica between 1984 and 2010 have they lost four in a row against an opponent across all European competitions.
