‘I don’t feel like an underdog’: Jürgen Klopp eager for Real redemption

The Liverpool manager still has raw memories of defeat in a Champions League final but he is undeterred as he prepares for another tilt at club football’s ultimate prize

Picture the scene. A sunbed by a hotel swimming pool in Las Vegas in May 2014. A German holidaymaker is trying to relax, to clear his mind of everything involving work, but his repose keeps being disturbed by noises off.

“There was a football match on television and a lot of people were watching it,” Jürgen Klopp says, taking up the story. “It was Real Madrid v Atlético in the Champions League final and everyone was shouting in Spanish. I was kind of annoyed by hearing the noise, because I had been trying to ignore the game. I didn’t want to watch it, I had no clue who had scored or who had won, because it was still painful to think of what had happened the year before.

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