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Jurgen Klopp still insists he ‘does not like’ the way Atletico Madrid play after slamming the Spanish side when they last met in the Champions League, though Diego Simeone had little time for his rival’s remarks.
The two teams meet in Madrid on Tuesday night around 17 months after the Spanish side knocked the Merseysiders out of the competition on home turf at Anfield in what was Liverpool’s final match before the coronavirus pandemic brought a halt to the season.
Klopp was livid after the game and took aim at Simeone and his side’s style of play, saying: ‘They could play proper football, but they stand deep and have counterattacks.’
While Klopp now concedes that emotions were running high after the game as the pandemic started to escalate – the Premier League would be suspended just a few days later – he is still not a fan of the way Simeone gets his Atletico side to play.
Asked about his previous criticism of Simeone, the Liverpool boss said at his pre-match press conference on Monday: ‘Look, first and foremost I think I said this after the second game, I was angry and disappointed about a lot of things… about life, a little bit, that things were going so wrong with the world at that moment.
‘Then we had to concentrate on football in really strange circumstances. Then, of course, we played against a team full of world-class players. They defended with all they have and that is probably the reason I said the things I said.
‘Look, Diego Simeone is doing absolutely everything right. He is the current Spanish champion, he is at Atletico for a long, long time, very successful there, has a bunch of world-class players, keeps them on their toes, they fight with all they have for their lives. That says a lot about the quality of Diego.
‘So I couldn’t respect…
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Source : metro
