Klopp says Inter Milan not coming to Liverpool as ‘tourists’

Jurgen Klopp said Inter Milan were not coming to Liverpool as tourists this week even though they are trailing 2-0 after the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie.

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Liverpool are well-placed to qualify for the quarter-finals ahead of Tuesday’s second leg at Anfield after Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah scored in Italy last month.

But Klopp is taking nothing for granted as his side seek to stay on track for an unprecedented quadruple of trophies after beating Chelsea on penalties to win the League Cup last week.

“The danger everybody knows about — it’s 2-0,” Klopp said in his pre-match press conference on Monday. “I think it’s the lead which got turned over most often in the history of football. 

“If you get to half-time 2-0 up and you have a team who thinks we are halfway through then you are already on the wrong path. 

“It’s a much better result than I would have expected before we played there. The game didn’t look like we would win it 2-0 for most of the time. It was a really tough tie and a really difficult game to play.”

Klopp said Inter, second in Serie A, had real quality, shown in their 5-0 victory over bottom side Salernitana last week.

“It’s a really good, really experienced team and they don’t come here as tourists,” said the German.  

“I know that they want to chase the game and that’s what we want to do because we are not a team who defends results or tries to get through somehow. We want to attack the game again.”

Klopp said Firmino, Thiago Alcantara and Joel Matip had returned to full training after injury and illness issues.

The trio will be assessed ahead of the Inter match but Klopp said because Firmino had been out for longer — he has not played since the Inter game — he might not be risked.