“Not true”- Klopp explains why he took Jota off for Luis Diaz at half-time vs Villarreal

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp explains reason for Luis Diaz substitution in Villarreal win 

While speaking in an interview with BT Sport after yesterday night’s win, as quoted by Sky Sports, Jurgen Klopp, who led Borussia Dortmund to the UCL final in 2013 and Liverpool in 2018 and 2019, revealed that he feels like this is the first time he is reaching the final of the competition.

After defeating Villarreal in the Champions League semi-final by a 4-3 aggregate scoreline, Liverpool have reached the Champions League final for the third time in 5 years. This would be the fourth UCL final appearance for the German manager as he featured after he took Borussia Dortmund until the last hurdle before his spell on Merseyside.

Klopp has now entered an exclusive club of managers, having reached the Champions League final for the fourth time. He wasn’t very successful on the first two occasions as his teams suffered defeats at the hands of Bayern Munich and Real Madrid respectively. He won the UCL title for the first time in 2019 after defeating Tottenham Hotspur in the final. 

In the post-match press conference, Jurgen Klopp revealed that he still ‘feels like the first time even after reaching the fourth final. He agreed that the Reds made the road a little difficult for themselves by taking a 2-0 hit in the first half, but they were mentally prepared for such a situation.     

“It feels like the first in 20 (years). It’s outstanding because we obviously made it a little tricky for ourselves, but we knew this kind of things could happen.”

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Liverpool have performed exceptionally well throughout the ongoing campaign. They won all their matches in the group phase and showed superb performances in the knockout stages. Even though they faced some trouble in the first half of the semi-final second leg against Villarreal, they fought back like a team that wants to be champions.

One changing point in the game was when Liverpool subbed in Luis Diaz for the second half. The Colombian superstar has taken England by storm after his January move from FC Porto and was the difference between the two sides yesterday night after coming on. He scored Liverpool’s second goal on the night with a neat header to seal the tie.

Speaking on BT Sport, as quoted by The Mirror, Klopp praised Diaz’s impact but explained that it shouldn’t reflect badly on Diogo Jota, who was brought off after an unproductive first 45 minutes. Klopp claims he just needed freshness on the pitch.

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“A massive impact but I don’t like this because the next story is Diogo Jota was the problem. Not true. We had 11 problems in the first half but we needed fresh legs. I wanted Mo (Salah) and Sadio (Mane) high and wide but not in open play situations.”

It was a surprise for some fans to see Diaz being left out of the XI in the first place. Along with Sadio Mane and Mo Salah, he is part of our strongest front three right now and surely deserves to start the two finals this month.