- Title: Klopp aims to "cool the situation down" with Shaqiri Red Star omission
- Date: 5th November 2018
- Summary: BELGRADE, SERBIA (NOVEMBER 5, 2018) (REUTERS) WIDE OF JUERGEN KLOPP WALKING INTO NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) LIVERPOOL MANAGER, JUERGEN KLOPP, TALKING ABOUT XHERDAN SHAQIRI'S OMISSION FROM THE SQUAD, SAYING: "Yes. I took a lot of times in my life a decision about a playing squad, a travel squad, and so far the player's always accepted it. And the first part, I thought we had this statement on our club website? Everybody who can read knows it already. So we come here as a football team and we represent one of the biggest football clubs in the world. That's why we're here, to play football. We want to focus on that, that's all. And because of the situation, people here all know better how the situation is, we decided not to bring Shaq (Shaqiri) here. And I said it, he's our player, he will play a lot of games for us but not tomorrow, that's all." WHITE FLASH (SOUNDBITE) (English) LIVERPOOL MANAGER, JUERGEN KLOPP, TALKING ABOUT XHERDAN SHAQIRI'S OMISSION FROM THE SQUAD, SAYING: "We have to cool the situation down because we cannot clarify that situation tonight and it's not our job. We are in Serbia and we respect that with 100%. I know it's not sad (means sad), that's the world how it is. Politics always has an influence on life, on the planet I live at least. And that's how it is. But we are not here for that, we are here for playing football. And that's why we try to make sure we can be focused on football. I realised tonight already I expected it differently but mostly the English-speaking journalists were asking about it to be honest. So it could've been a story and we didn't want to have a story besides a football story, and that's why we decided what we decided." TRANSLATOR TRANSLATES KLOPP'S ANSWER IN SERBIAN (17 SECONDS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) LIVERPOOL MANAGER, JUERGEN KLOPP, SAYING: "Sorry but I'm not sure that Serbian is that compromising (means conclusive). I think that the Serbian answer is much shorter than my English answer. I only want to make sure that all the English-speaking Serbian journalists get it right, that's really important. So otherwise if I could summarise it I could make it a few headlines with my answer TRANSLATOR: "Yeah I know, I know, I know" (SOUNDBITE) (English) LIVERPOOL MANAGER, JUERGEN KLOPP, SAYING: "It would be really cool. You got it all? (question to journalists). Thank you." WHITE FLASH (SOUNDBITE) (English) LIVERPOOL MANAGER, JUERGEN KLOPP, TALKING ABOUT RED STAR BELGRADE, SAYING: "I saw it in that game. We were really good that night and if we would've been a bit less good then Red Star would've been in the game. But how I said that night we were really strong, and that was good, and we have to be really strong tomorrow again football-wise. And yes, atmosphere how we know, we are from Liverpool so we know what atmosphere can help, how big the influence can be. But the only way I know to cool the atmosphere down is playing really good football. And that's what we have to try, to be ready for a fight, to be ready for a big game and we will be ready." WIDE OF NEWS CONFERENCE AS KLOPP GETS UP TO LEAVE
- Embargoed: 19th November 2018 18:42
- Keywords: UEFA Champions League Liverpool Red Star Belgrade Group C
- Location: BELGRADE, SERBIA
- City: BELGRADE, SERBIA
- Country: Serbia
- Topics: Soccer,Sport
- Reuters ID: LVA001958CGU7
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Liverpool have left Swiss international Xherdan Shaqiri out of the squad for Tuesday's (November 6) Champions League tie at Red Star Belgrade, saying they were uncertain over what sort of reception he would receive in the Serbian capital.
Shaqiri, an ethnic Albanian of Kosovar heritage, scored the winning goal for Switzerland when they beat Serbia 2-1 at the World Cup in June and celebrated with a gesture which appeared to imitate the eagle displayed on Albania's flag.
Serbia refuses to recognise the independence of its former province Kosovo, whose 1.8 million people are mostly ethnic Albanians, which broke away 10 years ago.
FIFA fined Shaqiri 10,000 Swiss francs ($9,951.24) for the gesture, along with team mate Granit Xhaka, another ethnic Albanian of Kosovar heritage, who scored Switzerland's equaliser in the same game and celebrated with a similar signal.
Shaqiri denied his celebration had political overtones.
Liverpool beat Red Star 4-0 at Anfield in a fixture between the sides last month to move top of Group C on six points. Red Star have one point after three matches in a pool that also includes Paris St Germain and Napoli. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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