Jurgen Klopp celebrated becoming the first Liverpool boss to win 50 games in Europe – but he wasn’t completely happy
Jurgen Klopp celebrated becoming the first Liverpool manager to earn 50 victories in Europe – as he had a dig at the state of the pitch in Linz.
The Reds came from behind to open their Europa League group campaign with a 3-1 win at LASK here in Austria on Thursday evening.
It saw Klopp edge ahead of Rafael Benitez and reach a half-century of triumphs in European competition in the Anfield hotseat.
But he said: “Let me say it like this, if I still have 50 after the group stage, then even if I’ve still got the most wins in Europe as a Liverpool manager then everybody will hate that! The highest number of wins but everybody will hate it!
“So it’s nice – we have played a lot of games in Europe, but it is good we have won that many and we have frequently qualified for finals, no it’s great but probably because the competition now has so many more games than in the past!”
Liverpool’s visit was the biggest game in the short history of the sell-out Raffeisen Arena, which was opened in February.
Klopp, though, was unhappy with the state of the playing surface, and said: “The atmosphere is great but the pitch is really bad, so I’m glad we didn’t play here in December. It was a great experience, really loved the atmosphere.”
