Many Liverpool fans look no further than the last 16 Champions League fixture with Real Madrid, but Jurgen Klopp does.
The Reds will be back on the pitch on Tuesday, with the first leg of the draw against Carlo Ancelotti’s team to be played at Anfield.
But with Liverpool struggling for any kind of consistency since resuming the season following the World Cup, many don’t have high hopes for the rest of their Champions League campaign.
However, the same cannot be said of Klopp, who in Friday’s press conference referred to his team engaged in the final stages of the competition.
“Hopefully we can get to the next round of the Champions League,” he said as he discussed his options for the squad, including Diogo Jota, Roberto Firmino and Virgil van Dijk who recently returned from injury. “So it means we’ll have 17 [games] in the league, but two more in the Champions League – hopefully four, six, seven [games], or whatever, if you want to go to the final probably. So we’ll be ready.
“For that you need changes, and that was a big problem in the past when we started again [after the World Cup], it was a big problem because we started playing straight away.
“We absolutely couldn’t change and we had to integrate a new player, and Darwin wasn’t fit, and all that.
“There were a lot of things, but I hope it stays that way now. That would be great because that’s what you need for consistency and performance.
It has been a disappointing season so far for Liverpool, but their impressive Champions League record under Klopp should not be forgotten.
Given their position in the Premier League, some may even feel that going all the way in Europe is the Reds’ best chance of qualifying for next season’s competition.
Klopp, however, does not rule anything out.
When the prospect of Liverpool pushing for a top-four finish in a similar way to how they did in 2020/21 was put to his head, his reaction was telling.
“Yes, yes, yes,” he said, with the look of a man who believes his side’s chances of securing the Champions League are not over. “That would be cool, but it’s a long road.”
We should all know by now that the writing of Klopp and his Liverpool side won’t end well and if he has the slightest bit of confidence, neither should we.