Jurgen Klopp just broke a promise to his Liverpool squad after injuries and ‘undeniable’ truth

Jurgen Klopp told his side their win over Luton was their ‘Barcelona moment’ – despite promising he wouldn’t do so

Jurgen Klopp has admitted he broke a promise to his Liverpool squad before describing their victory over Luton Town as ‘their Barcelona’ moment.

The Reds were without 11 first team players against the Hatters and trailed 1-0 at half-time at Anfield on Wednesday night. But a sensational second half showing saw them run out 4-1 winners thanks to goals from Virgil van Dijk, Cody Gakpo, Luis Diaz, and Harvey Elliott.

Speaking after the final whistle, Klopp revealed that he had promised his squad that he would stop using their famous Champions League semi-final 4-0 victory over Barcelona from 2019 as an example in team-talks. But spotting similarities between the two games as a result of enforced absences, the German admitted he had broken his promise during their comeback win over Luton.

“I will mention this game from now quite a few times!” he admitted. “I promised my team a few months ago that I would never mention or use the Barcelona game as an example and I used it again today so I broke my promise!

“Just because before the game, it was kind of similar. Many players missing, stuff like this. If the team who played Barcelona stuck to the knowledge of who was missing. We went through the goals.

“This team that time ignored the fact who is missing and I want us to ignore the fact who is missing. That is difficult because the public got the whole knowledge of who is missing only tonight. It’s like, – groans – I needed a few minutes to process it when I got all the news.

“But from that moment on, when you know how you can deal with it and sort it for this game, it feels really good. That is what I wanted the boys to show.

“This is an example tonight. This is their Barcelona. Now against Luton. Difficult situation. Plenty of reasons to give up in moments. Not tonight and I saw only a super group fighting. If you don’t limit yourself with bad thoughts, you can fly. And that’s what the boys did.”

And having seen his side struggle to threaten Thomas Kaminski’s goal during the first half, Klopp described Liverpool’s improved second half showing as a ‘thunderstorm’ as he continued to wax lyrical about the performance.

“Tonight is one of those nights where it is difficult to stop talking about it,” he said. “I am so happy with the performance, I am so happy with so many things we saw tonight.

“Before the game, nobody knew how the boys will take on this challenge, and it is a challenge. We started the game in a good way, I liked it. We had the chance of Lucho and then they score.

“Concede the goal and you could see immediately we were in a rush. Not in build-up, we still found the right spaces but in the final third we were in a rush.

“So many finishes and they all did not look great, they were not close and goalie had to make a perfect save. We had to ignore the fact we are 1-0 down and ignore the fact that we miss chances.

“And use the things that were good in the first half already, and improve the counter press. For that we had to play in the right spaces. The counter-press only makes sense if you win the ball back in good areas.

“That’s what the boys did and the second half was a thunderstorm. Wow, wow! The first half was like that, I know you tend to make headlines, we all had to get used to the crowd as well first half.

“The boys knew that the last pass was not great. If you hear it on top of it, it doesn’t help. We had to make sure we all start new.

“And second half, not that I needed proof, what this place together with a bunch of fantastic footballers is able to create is so special. Oh my god! The second half, we were undeniable. I love that!”