Press conferenceJürgen Klopp on Pep Guardiola: 'We compete with mutual respect'

Anfield will host the next chapter in a rivalry between two of the finest coaches of their generation and their teams, who have battled it out for Premier League supremacy in recent seasons.

During his pre-match press conference, Klopp was asked if competing with Guardiola’s City is the ‘hardest job in football’ and replied: “Yeah, but that’s fine. I am a very happy person, I have no problem with the situation.

“I never understood that, to be honest, in other sports they obviously don’t have that. Let me say, I’m not [Roger] Federer and Pep is not [Rafael] Nadal, but they compete on the highest level and are best friends.

“Pep and I, we are not best friends because we don’t know each other but I respect him a lot and I know he respects what we are doing as well so that’s fine.

“For a rivalry you don’t need to be disrespectful and around the games I would say we have a good relationship without meeting or talking or whatever, but respectful. And during the games we are both competitors and so far we did really well in cutting that out, the other stuff.

“Honestly, the situation is like it is, no problem with that. I always could see brilliance, or could admit brilliance when I saw it, so that’s in this case the case.”

Klopp added: “He has told me that when we are not in charge of any club anymore we can sit together and have a glass of wine, even though I am not a big wine drinker! But we could do that while I’m working and he’s off, I would visit him. We could have that talk, no problem.”