ReactionJoel Matip: Now our only focus is on beating Wolves
Joel Matip has stated Liverpool’s determination to do all they can to snatch the Premier League title by beating Wolverhampton Wanderers in Sunday’s season finale.
A second-half header from the centre-back earned the Reds a come-from-behind 2-1 win at Southampton on Tuesday night – a result that moved Jürgen Klopp’s side to within one point of leaders Manchester City with a single game left to play.
Wolves visit Anfield on the last day of the campaign while City host Steven Gerrard’s Aston Villa, but Matip insists he and his teammates’ sole focus will be on their job.
Highlights: Southampton 1-2 Liverpool
“We will just try our best. We just can play our games and that’s what we are concentrating on. We try to make it as exciting as possible,” the defender told Liverpoolfc.com.
“We can only look at our game. It will be tough enough to play against Wolves and our full concentration is on Wolves – that’s the only thing we can change and that’s what we are doing.
“It will be hard enough and if our head is somewhere else that would make it even more of a tough challenge.”
Matip’s stooping header following Kostas Tsimikas’ corner settled the contest at St Mary’s and when asked about his emotions after it went in, the No.32 replied: “Just happy. I don’t know how it ended up as a goal, to be honest, but it doesn’t matter. We played well and deserved to win. Everybody was working quite hard.
“I think I touched it but at the end, how it ended up there in the net I’m not sure – but I don’t care, to be honest.”
With the game on the south coast coming just three days after the Emirates FA Cup final, Klopp made nine alterations to his starting line-up and a much-changed Reds team overturned Nathan Redmond’s early opener thanks to Takumi Minamino’s leveller and Matip’s winner.
He continued: “It was a big challenge but it doesn’t matter who came in. They had no rhythm but they showed directly from the beginning the quality they have. It looked like they are always playing and showed their quality.”
Matip also paid special tribute to Minamino, who has now scored 10 times in just nine starts across all competitions this season.
“It’s just amazing,” he said.
“His whole game, he was there in every second, he was always an option, he was always a threat for the opponent. He just did brilliant.”
This article has been automatically translated and, while all reasonable efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, some errors in translation are possible. Please refer to the original English-language version of the article for the official version.