08 March 2024 , 14:34
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Jurgen Klopp warned the champagne should remain on ice for whoever wins Sunday’s blockbuster battle in the Premier League title race.
Liverpool take on champions Manchester City looking to move four points clear at the top of the table. City, on the other hand, will see this as a chance to take back control of the race as the season enters the final straight.
But Klopp insists that the winners will still have work to do if they want to land the title in May with 10 games to go after Sunday. He said: “Big game, City games are always big games and probably will always be.
“Title race decider, who brought that up? It is really early. Go through all the possible scenarios and after any result I don’t think anyone should open a bottle of champagne.
“But it is three points against an incredible strong opponent. We don’t hide, we want to win the game but knowing how difficult it is. We are really excited to be part of it.”
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Klopp was also quizzed on the reaction to Trent Alexander-Arnold’s words this week about winning meaning more to Liverpool, which has seen Manchester City duo Erling Haaland and Ruben Dias fire back at the Reds star.
The Kop boss said: “I am not sure how often in this club we have to say that you know how much we respect the opponent - in this case City - and mean it. We all respect that, Trent respects that, but he is born in Liverpool, he stood on the bins [watching training] before he played for the club, he played through all youth teams.
Liverpool defender Trent Alexander-Arnold sees his side in the middle of another title battle with Manchester City“What would you think in that situation? One of our slogan, which I love, is 'This Means More', and it means more - to us. We have no clue 100 percent what it means to other people but what happens here means more to us.
“We had, two years ago, a parade after winning the League Cup and FA Cup, losing a Champions League final the night before, losing the league by a point.
“Tell me a city where you have a parade and it looks like we won all these trophies without having them. The club is special to us. If it is not special to other people, we can’t change that. But if we feel it like, why shouldn’t we be allowed to say it?
“It is just how he feels and we feel and I have absolutely no problem with that. I am pretty sure - I didn't read it, I just got told you would ask me - he showed his respect as well.
Erling Haaland recently responded to Alexander-Arnold's comments“You love these kinds of interviews where somebody says what he thinks and then the whole world tells you it's not right what you think. It is still allowed that we think what we want, other people out there think much worse things and we should talk more about that probably. There is nothing wrong with what Trent said from my point of view.”
Klopp remains unsure if Ibrahima Konate will be fit to face City this weekend after he picked up a hamstring injury against Sparta Prague on Thursday night.
He added: “Ibou was rather positive last night, thought he made the right decision at the right moment but that doesn’t mean a lot but we will get it scanned definitely and I don’t have the results of that.”
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