Klopp: “The good thing was that I knew it couldn’t get any worse”

For the third time, LASK has drawn a dream draw in the European Cup, and for the first time it will also be a football festival: After the corona-related ghost games against Manchester United and Tottenham in 2020, the athletes can play against Liverpool for the first time in the Europa League on Thursday with the fans behind them English superiority rushes.

The “Reds” are in good shape: the 1-1 draw at the start of the Premier League against Chelsea was followed by four wins. Liverpool came from behind to win against Wolverhampton on Saturday for the third time this season. “A few times in the first half I thought to myself: What the hell?” said Klopp. “The good thing was that I knew: Things couldn’t get any worse.”

His team is unbeaten in 16 league games. Criticism of the German, who has been working on Merseyside for eight years, became loud last season. The 19-time English champion (most recently in 2020 after a 30-year break) missed the Champions League – for the first time since the 2015/16 season.

Only the GAK won

In 2019, Liverpool won twice in the group phase against Salzburg (4:3, 2:0), the only victory by an Austrian team was achieved by GAK in 2004: The Graz team won 1-0 at Anfield Road in the third qualifying round – not enough after that 0:2 at home.

For LASK it is the third comparison with a Premier League club. In March 2020, the then Linz stadium was sold out for the first leg of the round of 16 of the Europa League. Corona excluded the 14,000 visitors at 0:5. Nine months later, Tottenham were group opponents, LASK won a respectable 3-3. From the former team, only Rene Renner, Andres Andrade and Thomas Goiginger are still in LASK’s Europa League squad.