Liverpool 1-0 Ajax: the reaction of Jürgen Klopp

The Reds secured a place in the knockout stage of the tournament as Group D winners with a game to spare after a fierce encounter at Anfield.

Curtis Jones ‘strike in the second half was enough to settle the result when he reacted intelligently to lead Neco Williams’ cross over the header of visiting goalkeeper Andre Onana in the 58th minute.

Liverpool were forced to make a switch between their own posts, with Alisson Becker being ruled out as a precaution due to a tight hamstring as Klopp opted to give young Caoimhin Kelleher a first European start.

The manager’s faith paid off as the 22-year-old produced a confident display and produced a great save to thwart Klaas-Jan Huntelaar’s point blank header to death and prevent Ajax from taking a share of the points .

Read on for a transcript of Klopp’s post-match press conference…

On the result and the display of Liverpool …

Massive, massive. No surprise, it was an open game – it was an open game. I am absolutely delighted with the attitude and character that we have shown this evening. That’s what it was about, it’s not the time of year for us, not to play bump, bump, bump football, especially not with an opponent like Ajax. We had moments of football, great moments of football, we could have scored early and defended well, which is a big part of football. We had chances of counterattack and football in the second half, scored a magnificent goal and had to defend with everything we had. It’s like that in this part of the group stage. For Ajax they were in the game and they must have thought it was pretty much all or nothing, that’s how they changed and had all their attackers, I think, on the pitch at the end. So I’m very, very, very happy with the result and the performance under the circumstances that we find ourselves in. Excellent.

On Jones’ goal …

It was a good cross for Neco because it is not a cross directed towards the goalkeeper. For the goalkeeper, it’s a tricky situation to go. Usually at the end it’s a goal kick because no player reacts to these balls, but they are very important – balls behind the last row. Curtis, wow … I have to look it back, I didn’t have the best position in the stadium to see exactly that goal – there were a lot of Ajax players between me and the goal, but I had saw when it was in the net and that’s enough information for me.

On the decision to select Kelleher for the goal and his performance …

High. Up, up, up. It’s a situation, what I have to say, it was easy to decide for Caoimhin because he just deserved it, but it was hard to decide against Adrian because he did really well for us: a lot of clean sheets, what a season last year, Super Cup final and all that sort of thing. He did a really good job, but tonight we needed Caoimhin’s package – and he’s a great talent anyway, but a very good shooting scorer and a top footballer, so I like that. We needed that for Ajax’s pressing, we needed his chips from him in the half-spaces and that sort of thing. It was really good, but of course in the end it’s about saving, keeping the ball out of the net, and he’s done it at least twice in an exceptional way. I’m sure he’ll sleep very well tonight or not at all, but he’ll enjoy both.

In his post-match commentary, it was one of Liverpool’s best Champions League nights during his tenure …

They [other Champions League games] were all great but it was under different circumstances, that’s how it is. We had supporters. If anyone now thinks that I like it more than a game with our supporters, that is of course not the case. But we don’t have supporters in the stadium and then the difficult situation we find ourselves in, winning this game 1-0, making a lot of changes… Robbo [got] massive ankle blow in first half, needed strapping and needed another strapping at half time. Hendo [took] a good blow in the back, Gini played the number of the match … I don’t want to say it because I just hope it can continue. The children played in an exceptional way, the first three defended themselves like demons from all directions. It’s so important and the two middle halves were there when we needed them. It’s not now that we’ve played the best football ever, it’s about ‘this is the situation you find yourself in, this is what you do with it’. In the end, we are at the head of the group after the fifth day. We’ve never been this before so it’s really good and for us incredibly good.

On the seriousness of the blows suffered by Jordan Henderson and Andy Robertson …

We now have two more days than last week before the next game. I don’t know, things like this appear slightly different the next day. At the moment I’m pretty positive, but I don’t know. But that’s a problem for the next few days and not for tonight.