Liverpool beat Salzburg 4-3 at Anfield in the Champions League on Wednesday night, but that line alone doesn’t tell the full story.
The Reds went 3-0 up, and it looked like it could have been a riot from the reigning champions, but the Austrian outfit fought us back to 3-3.
Thank goodness Mohamed Salah scored our fourth – it handed us the win. Full credit to Salzburg though; not many teams come to Anfield and cause us problems like they did.
It was a mixed bag when it comes to performance, on one hand we were relentless and on the other we were complacent, but the boss knows we need to improve.
“Other teams maybe break down after 3-0 at Anfield, but they were not really bothered,” Klopp is quoted as saying by This Is Anfield.
“We opened the door. They were running through, chasing through the door. They scored the goal; half time we tried to adjust.
“It was a very important lesson for us tonight but I prefer massively to learn it in the game than to learn if after the game, because if we had lost 4-3 it would have been the same lesson.
“I knew before that we have to improve a lot, but now everybody knows it.”
The boss’ response to our result is second to none – he’ll have lambasted the lads as if we had lost 4-3, I just know it.
There were highlights though. Fabinho and Gini Wijnaldum looked sharp, as did Andy Robertson and Sadio Mane. Overall, as I said, a mixed bag.
I tell you what though – a neutral would have loved that game. As an advert for the Champions League, a seven-goal thriller at Anfield will do nicely.