Jordan Henderson on Club World Cup final: 'We came here to win it'
Jordan Henderson has outlined Liverpool’s determination to accomplish their mission for the week by lifting the FIFA Club World Cup trophy.
Saturday’s final against Flamengo in Doha is the obstacle the Reds must clear in order to meet their goal of becoming world, as well as European, champions.
And the captain is eager for Jürgen Klopp’s team to further etch their name into the Anfield history books by becoming the first side in the club’s history to win this competition.
“That’s what we’ve come here to do,” Henderson told Liverpoolfc.com of the prospect of being victorious in the final.
“We want to win and hopefully we can do that at the weekend. We’ve got another tough opponent as we have seen during the week, so it’s another tough game but we’ll recover and go again.”
Liverpool secured their place in the tournament showpiece in typically dramatic fashion, with Roberto Firmino’s stoppage-time strike earning a 2-1 win over Monterrey on Wednesday.
“It was difficult. We had to be patient, we had to keep moving the ball quickly,” began Henderson’s assessment of the semi-final.
“It was a tough game. They made it difficult and all over the pitch they were pressing us once we got into the final third, so we found it difficult to break them down. But we were patient enough to keep going and thankfully we managed to create one that went in in the end.
“It’s just [about] trying to be as patient as possible and making sure we are concentrating defensively as well on the transition, but overall we’ve got to be pleased with the result.
“Of course there’s one or two things we would like to do better but [it was] difficult conditions, they were a good team so we’ve got to take the win, move into the final at the weekend and hopefully we can perform even better.”
Virgil van Dijk’s absence due to illness - and the injuries of Dejan Lovren, Joel Matip and Fabinho - meant Henderson was deployed in the unusual surroundings of centre-back versus Monterrey.
“[It was] different!” the skipper said.
“I’ve got great players around us so they make it a lot easier. It was different but I just tried to do the best job I could there.
“I haven’t really played there before. We had the majority of the ball and that was OK with the defensive side, trying to keep the line and stuff which is probably the most difficult thing.
“But, overall I think we have got to be happy with the result and performance in the end.”