Tears of joy and sorrow: Klopp reveals bad news for Liverpool despite being pleased with their crushing win over Qarabag to advance to the UEFA Champions League Round of 16.
On 29 January 2026, Jürgen Klopp, manager of Liverpool, currently 6th in the English Premier League, spoke after the UEFA Champions League 2025-26 group stage final match, where Liverpool hosted and decisively defeated Qarabag, a team from Azerbaijan, 6-0.
This win brought Liverpool's total to 18 points, finishing 3rd in the UEFA Champions League group stage standings, behind 1st place Arsenal with a perfect 24 points and 2nd place Bayern with 21 points. The Reds qualified automatically for the Round of 16 without needing to play the two additional playoff matches.
Regarding Liverpool’s impressive victory, Jürgen Klopp said, "The result was excellent and the performance was good. Yesterday or two days ago, I said that because we had won the league, we qualified. What I meant was that we can compete with the best teams."
"We have several players with muscle injuries. We are increasing training to two sessions with several players who are still adjusting to it."
When asked about the injury to right-back Jeremy Frimpong, who had to be substituted by Wataru Endo in the 4th minute, and the possibility of reinforcing the squad before the winter transfer window closes, the Liverpool manager replied, "He will need to rest for a while."
"If you have an issue and have to leave the field like that, it usually tells you a lot. We will see how things develop in the coming days."
"We didn’t play badly for five, six, seven minutes. Usually, we tend to play poorly in other games, but this time we didn’t. We led 6-0 and they only had one counterattack chance. But I saw my players come back."
"I think I’ve said many times that the players are developing, and that’s because of them. They work very hard to be able to play every three days."
"I substituted them (Dominik Szoboszlai, Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike, Cody Gakpo) to give them rest before the game against Newcastle. It’s part of the development, and that’s something the club understands given the many changes we made during the summer."
