Genk 1-4 Liverpool: Jürgen Klopp's reaction
Jürgen Klopp was left satisfied after four 'unbelievably beautiful' goals secured a 4-1 Champions League win over Genk for Liverpool.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain put the Reds ahead just two minutes into Wednesday night’s Group E game at KRC Genk Arena, and the No.15 doubled both his own tally and that of his team with a stunning second shortly before the hour mark.
Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah then set each other up to extend the European champions’ advantage to 4-0, before Stephen Odey netted a late consolation for Genk.
Watch: Genk 1-4 Liverpool in 90 seconds
Liverpool’s victory, coupled with Napoli’s win at Salzburg, means they remain second in the pool, one point behind Carlo Ancelotti’s side and three clear of the Austrian club.
Read on for a summary of Klopp’s post-match press conference in Belgium…
On Liverpool’s performance…
Good moments, a very good start, another 10/15 minutes absolutely OK, exactly how you have to do it. They start with a 4-4-2 so it was for a midfield press, we have to play around. We were really flexible, we did that well. We didn’t create too much but it was exactly [right]: keep them busy, find the gaps, pass it through, pass it behind, all that stuff. That was the plan obviously, and it worked for 10 or 15 minutes OK and then not anymore because we lost completely unexpected balls which we were not ready for, which in the formation is not possible because if you are in a wide formation and lose the ball in the centre… we lost too many of them and sometimes we took in the wrong moment a risk. A pass or a one-two in a very tight space, it makes not too much sense. We were not clear enough, lost these balls, had to defend them with legs to run for it. We got a bit of the momentum, after that start completely unnecessary, so it was a pretty stiff first half and then we could show the boys a couple of spaces which they could use, maybe should use in the second half. Then we scored the second goal, the first goal was brilliant but the second was even nicer – all our goals were unbelievably beautiful – and the second was like it was a proper knock for Genk it looked like. So we scored a third and fourth and then conceded one, which is not cool, but it’s not for us the biggest problem in the world. We won the game, job done, that’s it.
On Oxlade-Chamberlain’s display…
An absolutely great moment for him but Ox’s performance was, I would say, exactly like the performance of the team: the goals were great but all the rest could have been better! That’s how it is, it’s no problem. The goals were sensational and very important for us. Obviously it was wonderful last Sunday that Adam scored the goal and now Ox has scored two goals, which is really nice. It’s absolutely great, a great story.
On whether Genk’s 4-4-2 formation surprised him…
Look, if they had played a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-4-1-1 then in a lot of moments these systems are completely the same. The only difference today was the offensive part with a pretty tall player on the pitch! That was a smart idea, it’s not the first time that teams do it against us but we cannot win the first ball constantly all the time. We tried not to make fouls and stuff like this and wanted to challenge, but of course he can put his body in there and fight for the second balls and that is uncomfortable. No, we didn’t expect it, but it was not a massive surprise.
On James Milner’s selection at right-back and whether Andy Robertson’s substitution was due to injury…
Andy is OK. [Milner was] picked over Joe [Gomez]? I didn’t see it like that, to be honest, I only picked Millie. We got the message on Tuesday morning that Trent was ill overnight so we wanted to change as little as possible. Millie then, in the way we wanted to play, was the clear number one solution for that moment. But after 15 minutes already it was clear that we would try to change again [by] bringing Joe on. Joe did really well. He looked confident, looked clear, it was good. That was the only reason, nothing against Joe.