Jurgen Klopp says Liverpool have made ‘special plans’ to deal with Vinicius Jr. in Wednesday night’s Champions League quarter-final second-leg game against Real Madrid.
The La Liga giants take a 3-1 lead to Anfield after their Brazilian star netted a brace in Madrid last week, with Marco Asensio also getting a goal for the hosts.
It gives Liverpool a mountain to climb and they will be wary of getting hit on the break by Vinicius’ pace, with Klopp revealing that Liverpool will look to stop the 20-year-old.
‘I was impressed, not surprised,’ replied Klopp, having burst out laughing during the question at the suggestion he might have been taken by surprise by the Brazilian attacker.
‘He’s obviously an outstanding talent. Everybody knew it before Real Madrid signed him but since then he became obviously even better. And that’s cool. ‘Special plans? Yeah that’s unfortunately the case.
‘You saw one goal I think we could have defended. The other goal, as I’ve said, was just a great, great long ball and then a great first touch and great finish.
‘So yeah, we will try to avoid [allowing] the passes in his direction – which is a big task actually! But impressed yes, surprised not.’
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Despite needing to overturn a two-goal deficit, Klopp is optimistic about the Reds’ chances of pulling off another famous comeback but believes they must improve in defense to do so.
He continued: ‘What’s important is the performance, we have to play like ourselves and play as good as we can, we have to try to win the game and then we will see what the result leads us to.
‘With the quality that Real Madrid has you have to defend on your absolutely highest level and that is what we didn’t do in the first leg.
‘It’s always about winning football games and that is the target for tomorrow night. If that will end up in a comeback, I have no idea.
‘We have to be in a mood to start believing again and, if that happens and we can see that it’s possible, then we have a chance, but it’s still incredibly difficult.’
