Klopp: Liverpool can’t take UCL progress for granted

Under the management of Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool has progressed through all six of its Champions League group stages. Liverpool may be off to a disappointing start in the Premier League, but pulling off a 3-0 win over Ajax to advance to the Champions League round of 16 will hopefully give them a morale boost. The win comes just four days after a disheartening 1-0 loss to Nottingham Forest.

Liverpool’s goalscorers were Mohamed Salad, Harvey Elliott, and Darwin Núñez. Salah became the third player to be directly involved in 50 or more goals in the competition for English clubs with a goal in the first half and the assist for Elliott. Though Liverpool ended up with a big win, they had a slow start and it looked like Ajax was in control.

“It started really, really tricky for us and that makes the victory in the end even sweeter,” said Klopp. “Ajax are a really good team and we’ve beaten them twice. The first half an hour, maybe 35 minutes, they were the better team. Then we scored the two goals, controlled the game.”

Liverpool survived numerous attempts at goals by Ajax, moving ahead in the 42nd minute on Sarah’s goal. They needed only a point to join Group A leaders Napoli in the next round, but they got three. Rather than looking ahead to the next game, Klopp said they were focused on getting through the game at hand.

“Qualifying for the knockout stages, I think nobody ever should take for granted. It’s really difficult,” said Klopp. “We did it again, which is a big achievement in itself. We are really happy about going to the last 16.”