Jürgen Klopp vowed to make life doubly tough for Manchester City after Liverpool were drawn to face the Premier League champions in the FA Cup semi-final.
Liverpool already knew before last night’s 1-0 win away to the Sky Bet Championship promotion hopefuls Nottingham Forest that they could play Pep Guardiola’s side twice in the space of a week next month.
The rivals meet at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday April 10 in a game that will have a huge bearing on the destiny of the Premier League trophy. And they will play at Wembley on April 16 for the right to play Chelsea or Crystal Palace in the FA Cup final. Klopp said that the two fixtures were only parts of a hectic schedule that also features a Champions League double header.
But he said that Guardiola would not have been overjoyed to have had another clash with Liverpool added to City’s fixture list.
“We have Watford, Benfica, City, Benfica, City, [Manchester] United, Everton — from a Liverpool perspective these are all massive games and you try to play them one at a time and not altogether,” he said. “We knew before the game that City would be the opponent and wanted to go to the final anyway. The further you go in any competition the more likely it is you will face City.
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“I don’t think we are the dream draw for anybody but it will be a tough one and we have to make sure it will be tough on City as well but there are a lot of teams to play before then.”
It will also be tough for City and Liverpool fans to attend the semi-final as all trains from the northwest to London Euston have been cancelled for engineering works that Easter bank holiday weekend.
“How is that possible?” Klopp said. “The whole of the northwest is cut off from the rest of England? I don’t know which kinds of solutions are available but I hope somebody finds one. If we could play with supporters that would be really good — for both teams.”
Klopp praised Diogo Jota for scoring the late goal that saw off Forest; the former Wolverhampton Wanderers striker converted Kostas Tsimikas’s cross for his 19th of the season. “What a player, what a boy,” he said. “This goal was exceptional. It was a good cross from Kostas but he had to stretch the body to reach it. After injury he needed a little bit to get back on track but I hope he will come back from the national team [Portugal] OK because we need this kind of player.”
Liverpool survived a VAR check for offside for the goal and the remote officials also agreed with referee Craig Pawson’s decision not to award a penalty at 1-0 when Ryan Yates went down under a challenge by Alisson.
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“I haven’t seen them back but it would have been interesting if they had been up the other end,” Steve Cooper, the Forest manager, said.
“I thought it was tight,” Jota admitted on the issue of offside.
Jota’s goal came directly after Forest had spurned their clearest chance of the game, with Philip Zinckernagel firing wide with only Alisson to beat.
“There is no blame,” Cooper said.
