Klopp Talk: Liverpool’s Pre-Season Victory Over Napoli Means Nothing

Liverpool beat Napoli 5-0 in pre-season, but that doesn’t mean anything for Wednesday’s match.

In pre-season, Liverpool hammered Napoli, beating the Italian side 5-0. That lopsided victory will mean nothing when the two sides kick off for real on Wednesday evening in the second Champions League game of the season for the two storied clubs.

More than that, manager Jürgen Klopp says that he hadn’t even given any thought to his side’s lopsided summer friendly victory at his pre-match press conference today—or at least that he hadn’t until the gathered journalists brought it up.

“Now you have reminded me so I will maybe tell the boys to ignore it as it has nothing to do with this,” he noted. “Last year [in pre-season] we beat Barcelona 4-0 and lost to Mainz 4-0. Barcelona are a world class team and Mainz are not better than Liverpool.

“It was a pre-season friendly, in Dublin, and nothing else. So it was all very Liverpool-orientated—and then we scored with each shot pretty much. Napoli had a lot of chances and they didn’t score. So it’s absolutely not important.”

What might be more important, at least when it comes to this season’s Champions League, is that while Liverpool were pushing past Paris Saint-Germain with a 3-2 victory that wasn’t as close by the run of play as it was on the scoreboard, Napoli were struggling.

Napoli only managed a 0-0 draw with Red Star in their opener, and that means they will be desperate on Wednesday evening at home in front of their fans—both to play well and to get the three points they need to stay in contention.

“I like Carlo Ancelotti,” Klopp added. “I respect him a lot. World class player, world class manager. Napoli are really strong, a really good football team. The good news for us is that we are not too bad also!”

Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com