ReactionJürgen Klopp press conference: Liverpool 4-0 LASK
Jürgen Klopp hailed Liverpool's passage into the last 16 of the Europa League as 'very important' following his team's 4-0 defeat of LASK on Thursday night.
The Reds secured an automatic place in the Round of 16 stage of the competition as Group E winners at Anfield with the victory alongside Toulouse's home draw against Union SG.
A header from Luis Diaz, double from Cody Gakpo and Mohamed Salah's penalty ensured the win for the hosts, who qualified for the knockout phase with a game to spare.
Read a summary below from Klopp's post-match press conference...
On the result, performance and qualification for the last 16 of the tournament...
Two top results for us tonight in the group. It was clear, with the defeat at Toulouse we made it a bit more tricky, but because of our result and their result [tonight] we are now top of the table and that will not change. That's good, very important in the busy, busy, busy schedule we have from now on. [There were] a lot of positives in the game, a lot of good football. The thing I didn't like too much, and told the boys at half-time, [was] this game should have been put to bed already at half-time. A third, fourth, fifth goal... you cannot play better, you cannot set it up better, [but] you can finish it better obviously, but we didn't.
So, what was it? Fifty-something [minutes] when we scored the third? That's then very helpful as well. We made changes and lost a bit of rhythm. Then you see immediately, if you don't play you will not stay in charge of the game. If you lose balls in the wrong moment, LASK was there, had chances, Caoimhin worked for his clean sheet, which he desperately wanted, and that's good. Scored a fourth goal in the last minute or whatever, so result top, performance really good [and] nobody got injured. All good.
On 'how much of a priority' the Europa League is for Liverpool...
What do you mean how much of a priority? In comparison to other competitions or whatever? Unfortunately, my career is not like this where I can choose, to be honest. I have to take what I get. When we play the competition it's the most important competition on the planet. Easy as that. But now we play Premier League on Sunday and so that is then the most important competition, definitely. We want to go as far as somehow possible [in the Europa League].
On Jarell Quansah's performance...
Look, for us that's absolutely perfect. Jarell played a super game. But, by the way, the last line tonight, starting from the right… Joey, top, top, top; Ibou, top. That we took him off was a medical decision. No risks, stuff like this, give him minutes but not too long and Jarell played a super game, that's true. That couldn't be better news for the club, to be honest. I think before this season a lot of people told us we should buy a centre-half.
We knew we had Jarell. Did we know that he will show up like this? No, not exactly, but we were pretty hopeful, so the future is bright. It's cool. Our own boy, calm on the ball, good in the challenge, quick, ruthless in the right moments and besides Caoimhin, who had one or two saves, [he] probably had the most spectacular defensive situations when he saved our backside in some moments. So, that's really good. [It's] top news for us.
On Conor Bradley's return from injury...
So happy. So, so happy for the boys. We have some super talents here, I have to say. You saw it tonight again. Really smart, brave, good footballer. After that long time, it would have been perfect in this week if he could've had a few minutes in the U21s, for example. But we work in a high-performance industry if you want. It means Tuesday and Thursday makes a difference. So, Tuesday [he] was not right but [on] Thursday a few minutes was OK, so we try to get that. Luke Chambers came back after a long injury and needed time to get rhythm. Now he is getting better and better and better, top talent as well.
Kaide Gordon is back after a long, long injury spell; incredibly long [and] looks super in training. So, if we can do things like this, we will do things like that because that's our job, giving the boys not only with words but with actions [and] opportunities to make the next step. It's a pure joy to see him back in training, he [Bradley] had a top pre-season with us and all of a sudden he was out for a long time, so it's good to have him back.