Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp was happy with his players after they thrashed Sparta Prague 6-1.
This means the Reds have qualified for the Europa League quarterfinals 11-2 on aggregate as Darwin Núñez, Bobby Clark, Mohamed Salah, Cosy Gakpo (2) and Dominik Szoboszlai struck on the night.
Klopp later said: “Yes absolutely we got rhythm and intensity. That is how we had to take it. I told the boys before the game that is how we approach it. I don’t expect to come into the game and not go through, we do not expect to somehow lose 5-0.
“It was on us to decide how good a game it would be and obviously we enjoyed playing football, some fantastic goals as well early on. From that point on it becomes a difficult game, like how do you keep going? We did, and I liked a lot of stuff that I saw, but of course it is how it is. We had to bring it over the line somehow, scored some more goals in the second half, conceded one in the middle too.
“All fine, all good. We wanted to go through, we wanted to play well and score goals and we did that.”
On Clark’s first goal at senior level, Klopp said: “He played incredibly. It was his first goal but he won the ball back after another one. He is the one I am worried a bit about, we wanted to take off Mo [Salah], but Bobby sits on the ground and says he feels something in the ankle. Hopefully it is nothing. The steps the boy made though, ooff [wow].
“We’ve had such a difficult situation with all the injuries and then the boys stepped in and took their chances. So very happy with that, they were exceptional again.”
For Mateusz Musialowski’s debut, he added: “I don’t care about statistics [of debuts handed out], Mateusz deserved it, you have to say it. He has trained a few weeks with us now, in and out, players develop differently. So he is an exceptional talent but we play football in a specific way. He gets it more and more and now I really think he is ready. That’s why he got the minutes, he waited long enough and another great kid.”
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