- Title: Klopp praises his side after dominating win over Hoffenheim
- Date: 23rd August 2017
- Summary: LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND, UK (AUGUST 23, 2017) (REUTERS) LIVERPOOL MANAGER JUERGEN KLOPP ENTERING NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) LIVERPOOL MANAGER JUERGEN KLOPP, SAYING: (Reporter: "Juergen, can you sum up what it means to be through to the group stages of the Champions League.") "Yippee! Everything! What can I say!? It's all what the club, what the team worked for in the last 14 months, so I know it's always like this, you will always find a few people who will say 'ah, it's just the Champions League'. We feel we wanted to be part of it with all we have and I thought the boys played a few pieces of outstanding football. How it is in a game like this especially against an opponent like Hoffenheim you also have a few problems, that's how it is, but I'm really happy about the deserved qualification for the group stage." WHITE FLASH (SOUNDBITE) (English) LIVERPOOL MANAGER JUERGEN KLOPP, ASKED ON HOW FAR HE THINKS THE TEAM CAN GO IN THE TOURNAMENT, SAYING: "I don't think that it's too important to think about where we can go. When you are in the group stage, we've known it since half an hour, then you want to go through the group stage. You want to go to the quarter-finals, and then you want to go to the next round, that's how it is." KLOPP LEAVING NEWS CONFERENCE HOFFENHEIM MANAGER JULIAN NAGELSMANN ENTERING NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (German) HOFFENHEIM MANAGER JULIAN NAGELSMANN, ON HIS THOUGHTS WHEN HIS SIDE WERE DOWN 3-0 AFTER ONLY 21 MINUTES, SAYING: (OFFICIAL TRANSLATION) "My thoughts initially at the time was that this could be going better. The reason was that we didn't start the match that well at all, the first couple of minutes were already challenging for us and then in the 18th minute there was a free kick and we had two or three bad tackles and then the crowd could sense that and got behind Liverpool and that was the classic atmosphere. We had a game plan that we didn't really manage to implement, we were running around like headless chickens and we didn't implement that order we were going to use initially, and Liverpool played just the way they did in the first leg, they scored exactly the type of goals they always score in the Premier League, so the difference being this time is that we played well in the first leg and today we weren't playing well, we created far too many distances and gaps and then there was the problem for Dennis Geiger who was forced to defend an area of about 70 square metres without any support and maybe also the team were a bit too emotional and created those gaps that we didn't manage to defend anymore. The additional factor maybe as well was that for the first 30 minutes there were two or three players who seemed to be not on the pitch at all."
- Embargoed: 6th September 2017 23:21
- Keywords: Liverpool Hoffenheim Champions League Juergen Klopp Julian Nagelsmann
- Location: LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND, UK
- City: LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND, UK
- Country: United Kingdom
- Topics: Soccer,Sport
- Reuters ID: LVA0016VDQ6GV
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Liverpool scored three goals in 12 dramatic first-half minutes as they swept to a 4-2 win over Hoffenheim in the second leg of their playoff tie to qualify for the Champions League group stage on Wednesday (August 23).
Emre Can scored twice to help Liverpool to a 6-3 aggregate win and wreck Hoffenheim's dreams of qualifying for the first time.
Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp couldn't hide his joy at a post-match news conference, heaping praise on his players for their blistering first-half performance which effectively secured the tie.
Hoffenheim manager Julian Nagelsmann blamed some of his players for not performing well at the start of the match as the team found themselves 3-0 down within 21 minutes. The young tactician said his players left too many gaping holes for Liverpool to expose. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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