Liverpool chief Jurgen Klopp said he didn’t see any of the punishment shootout against Stoke City that took his side to Wembley in the Capital One Cup last – however has set his sights on lifting his first trophy since touching base at Anfield.
Liverpool triumphed 6-5 on penalties after Stoke won 1-0 after additional time to hook back a semi-last first-leg deficiency. Reds goalkeeper Simon Mignolet made unequivocal recoveries from Peter Crouch and Marc Muniesa in the spot-kicks.
Klopp said: “I didn’t see one shot. I was behind the wall of my players so I had to watch it from there. I will watch it on television at home but it was good watching the crowd instead.”
Liverpool will confront Manchester City or Merseyside neighbors Everton in the last on 28 February, and Klopp said: “Hopefully we will win and have a really good night in London.
“It is very important. I saw that in the faces of my players, but in this moment we shouldn’t talk too much because being in the final is good but the important thing is to win. Their goal was double offside but we got some luck in the penalties.
“We have the possibility to win the final. Now we will watch the game between Everton and Manchester City on Wednesday. It will be north of England final. Wembley is a cool place to play football but we go there to win – it’s not much fun to lose.”
Klopp says he will savor meeting Everton yet has no inclination, including: “It is great to be here in Liverpool. It is a great place to be. It is great the Blues and Reds are together in normal life but want to beat each other in sport, which is normal.”
He singled out 23-year-old Liverpool safeguard Jon Flanagan for recognition after the privilege back was remarkable in his first begin subsequent to the last day of the 2013-14 season.
Klopp said: “He was my man of the match. He has been out since May 2014 and played 105 minutes, and even when we took him out he told us he could go on.”
Mignolet has been reliably upheld by Klopp regardless of feedback and reimbursed him with the pivotal punishment spares.
“Mignolet did well. It was really difficult,” said Klopp. “There were 500 long balls in the box and we are all sitting in our warm chairs saying ‘come and do something.’ Peter Crouch was only on the pitch to disturb and as a team, our reaction was really good.”
