In fullJürgen Klopp's Real Madrid programme notes

If anyone ever asks me for a reference point for Anfield and what makes it so special, what happened here last Monday night will be high on my list.

Not because it was the most decisive result, an outcome that takes us close to success or even the best atmosphere we have ever experienced – but because it showed everything that this club is about. We will need the same tonight.

By the end of the Merseyside derby, it would have been easy to forget how we arrived into it. To get any kind of positive result we had to be totally together, on and off the pitch.

This is exactly what happened. No negativity because of previous results, just our very best face. I have said repeatedly that how we emerge from a difficult period will be determined by how we act during it and this was the best example of how we can come through it together.

Real Madrid will have no interest in helping us on this path, though. They have their own objectives for this season and, given their history, one of them will undoubtedly be doing everything in their power to win the Champions League.

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Like us, this is a competition that means an incredible amount to them, and I could not be more aware that Carlo Ancelotti, his staff, players and everyone associated with Real will come to Liverpool with an expectation that their own European road has further to run.

For the avoidance of doubt, this is something that I say out of total respect. Part of Real’s greatness comes from the confidence that they have in themselves. It is in their DNA and it is one of the reasons why they have won 14 European Cups.

Rather than be burdened by their history, they are empowered by it. So I welcome Carlo and his staff as rivals in this tie but also with utmost respect for what they have achieved and what they continue to achieve.

The good thing is, as much as it has been said that we could not have asked for a tougher opponent, I am sure we would not have been the team at the top of everyone’s list when the draw for the last 16 was made.

Again, the past – both recent and more distant – helps us in this regard. The name ‘Liverpool’ means something in Europe and the standard that has been set over the years is one that we must continue to live up to.

Of course I would love nothing more than if we had a couple more trophies to our name than we have, but the journeys we have been on help us as much as any silverware we have won.

The experiences that have brought us together, the difficult moments that we have been through, the special times we have shared and everything about being a team and a club headed in the same direction has made us what we are. We should never lose sight of that, even in our lowest points.

Real give us another reference point for who we are. In 2018 we lost to them in the final in Kyiv and no-one needs me to tell them how disappointing that was. But we took that experience, and we used it with everything we had and 12 months later it was us who were celebrating.

In many ways, the 2018 final was the mother of the 2019 final and the lesson we can take from it now is that we can and always should use setbacks the best way that we possibly can.

The Paris final last season will be remembered by our supporters for reasons much worse than anything that happens out on the pitch, but the outcome of the game was not what we wanted either.

But if I was to find a glimmer of light in the whole experience it would be that the story did not end there. There is always another season, another game, another chance. Our responsibility is to use this opportunity as best we can in the knowledge that this time Anfield will be with us.

Hopefully this will be an occasion that we can remember for all the right reasons. Anything that we get will have to be earned because that is the way it should be in this competition.

We already know this, though. Our job is to use this and every other bit of knowledge to give ourselves the best possible chance. The starting point for this is to be together, just as we were last Monday.

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