Jurgen Klopp delighted in Liverpool s 3-0 thumping of Manchester City at Anfield but is keen not to make Pep Guardiola s side angry ahead of next week s return leg in the all-English Champions League quarter-final.
Liverpool became the only side to beat champions-elect City in the Premier League this season when they stormed to a 4-3 triumph in January and Guardiola s men underwent an even more spectacular Merseyside unravelling on Wednesday.
Mohamed Salah s 38th goal of the season set Liverpool on their way after 11 minutes and, as he did in the league encounter, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain brought the Kop to its feet with a brilliant long-range strike.
Sadio Mane headed in a third after the half-hour as the hosts ran riot but Klopp was keen not to be drawn on his pre-match assertion of City being the best team in the world on current form when speaking in a news conference afterwards.
We beat the best team in the world, that s a pretty good performance, he said with a knowing grin.
I don t think about things like that. I have never been part of the best team in the world, but I always knew it is possible to beat them. It is really rare because they are so good.
With all the things I could say now, like very positive, I make them even more angry. If I answer your questions the way you want me to, Pep only has to put the newspapers in the dressing room and say that s what Klopp said. Then, go . We have to work there again like hell.
It s about going to the next round, we are not in the next round. Why should I celebrate it?
Another magnificent European night at Anfield.
Let’s make sure we finish the job in Manchester.
— Liverpool FC (@LFC)
Klopp cited an experience from his own past to show where any complacency might lead Liverpool.
At the same quarter-final stage in 2013-14, his Borussia Dortmund shipped a 3-0 first-leg defeat to Real Madrid but had the eventual champions hanging on as they won 2-0 at Signal Iduna Park.
I am too long in the business, he added. Years ago I played with Dortmund at Real Madrid. We lost 3-0, and everyone said it was done.
I was really angry about that and at home we won 2-0 with six or seven changes in the team and everyone who saw the game knew we should have won 5-0, 100 per cent.
It is better than 3-1, better than 1-0 [but] no one was in the dressing room dancing around and celebrating after the half-time result. This leg is about 180 minutes or so.
