Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp admitted to forgetting the exact aggregate score a time or two in Liverpool’s 4-2 loss to Roma in the second leg of the UEFA Champions League semifinal on Wednesday.
[ MORE: Match recap | Reds players react ]
All he knew is that the Reds were up -- the aggregate final was 7-6 after Roma struck thrice late -- and on pace for a return to the UCL Final.
And he knows that Liverpool was lucky but also deserving of their berth in Ukraine for the May 26 final against Real Madrid.
“We are deserved finalists 100 percent,” Klopp said. “You don’t come without luck. We needed it only one time tonight. Real Madrid needed luck yesterday too. That’s how it is.”
Klopp also dedicated the win to Liverpool supporter Sean Cox, who was left in critical condition after a beating at the hands of traveling Roma support before last week’s first leg.
Roma wore “Forza Sean” shirts in the run-up to the game in a show of solidarity with their semifinal opponents.
From Football Italia:
“It’s 100 per cent a final for Sean Cox. We said before the game we thought about it, now we’re here, all our prayers and wishes are with him,” Klopp told Mediaset Premium after the final whistle.
“We were lucky today, we know that. Roma are strong, we had them where we wanted, as they were wild, ran the risks and we went 2-1 up. All good. But then we didn’t do enough on the counter, we didn’t use the space that they gave us and we lost the game after going 1-0 up already.”
Klopp is already answering questions about his questionable record in finals, and those questions are going to come fast and furious with his right-hand tactical man Vejlko Buvac away from the team and being whispered for the Arsenal job and a reunion with old Borussia Dortmund friend Sven Mislintat.
“We should start winning but I know that,” Klopp said, according to the BBC. “Everyone will remind me now from now on that I have lost the last five finals but we will try and go there again.”