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Old 10-03-2016, 12:30 PM   #17
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Default Re: [UEL] Liverpool vs Manchester United

Forget the stage, this is still the No 1 game! Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp fired up by red-hot Manchester United rivalry

* Liverpool preparing for Manchester United clash in Europa League last-16
* Jurgen Klopp believes rivalry is 'the mother all of all football games'
* Louis van Gaal hopes to beat Liverpool for fifth time during his tenure


Fifty years ago on Thursday, George Best returned home a hero after inspiring Manchester United’s 5-1 win over Benfica in the quarter-finals of the European Cup.

It was a career-defining moment for the mercurial young footballer with pop-idol looks. El Beatle, as they dubbed him that day, had arrived.

Football and music. Half a century on, they remain the two topics most likely to inflame the passions in any debate comparing the merits of Manchester and Liverpool.



Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp claims the Manchester United rivalry is the 'mother all of football games'

If the reaction to the announcement of the death of Beatles producer Sir George Martin was a reminder of the enduring impact of music, Thursday at Anfield the power of football will be in evidence once again.

Liverpool and United have collided nearly 200 times since they first met when the latter were still called Newton Heath in 1894, but this will be the first occasion that one of world football’s most ferocious rivalries has been played out on the European stage.

That it comes in the last 16 of the Europa League is a sobering thought for two clubs with such a proud history. United were two years from the first of their three European Cup successes when Best conquered Benfica at the Stadium of Light in 1966. Liverpool, as they never tire of telling their rivals, have won it five times.

The Europa League might be less significant by comparison, even though winning the competition now guarantees a place in next season’s Champions League.

But Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was not alone in feeling that this meeting has the air of an altogether more important occasion.

‘The mother of all football games,’ was how he described it. ‘I’ve seen a lot of rubbish games in the Champions League,’ added Klopp. ‘It’s not about the tournament, it’s about the teams involved.

‘The Europa League is a long tournament but we can see the finish and there are only top quality teams left. From now on, it’s like a little Champions League.

‘Sitting on the bench for Liverpool against Man United is one of the best things I can imagine. I hope it’s not the biggest game in my Liverpool career, but it’s really important.’

Some 32 miles down the road at Carrington, Louis van Gaal was reading from a more conservative script. The Dutchman’s studious demeanour on the bench tells you all you need to know about his approach compared with Klopp’s touchline histrionics.

A man who has coached in some of the biggest games in European football as manager of Ajax, Barcelona and Bayern Munich was not about to buy into the fact that United and Liverpool are slumming it in Europa League.

Reminded that these great rivals had previously dominated English football for nearly four decades, Van Gaal said: ‘In football it is not normal that one team is dominating for 20 years in a row.

‘It was another time. You have to live in the present. Other teams are in the Champions League. You are talking about Manchester United and Liverpool, and we are happy to play in the Europa League.

‘Liverpool versus Manchester United is always a big game traditionally. Historical. And now especially because both teams fight for a Champions League position.’

Van Gaal’s approach has served him well so far. He has won his first four games against Liverpool, all in the Premier League. No United manager has won five in a row. However, he went so far as to say that beating West Bromwich Albion on Sunday would have given him as much satisfaction as winning the first leg at Anfield.

‘It is good United have beaten Liverpool so many times,’ he said. ‘It is also good for me because the appreciation is higher and bigger from the fans.

‘I hope we shall beat them for the fifth time, but more for the fans than myself. We prepare ourselves to beat the opponent.

‘If we win against Liverpool, I am not more happy than if we had won against West Brom.’

United supporters are sure to take a different view. After all, the atmosphere surrounding this game has the potential to turn from passionate to poisonous very quickly indeed. Van Gaal was equally measured on that subject, too.

‘Several people are thinking they are the enemy, but I am not thinking like that,’ he said. ‘I am thinking they are an opponent and we want to beat the opponent.’

Progressing to the quarter-finals is even more important because neither club looks likely to finish in the top-four of the Premier League this season. Van Gaal seems to have more to lose given his uncertain situation at Old Trafford, but there will no sympathy from Klopp despite his admiration for a man he encountered on many occasions in Germany.

‘There was a lot of pressure on Louis van Gaal and United a few weeks ago but they came through it really well,’ said Klopp.

‘Louis van Gaal is one of the most successful managers in the world. With this long, successful career it’s not OK that at the end the world is given the feeling that he has no idea about football, because that’s not true.

‘But it’s a difficult situation they’re not completely through and we want to make their problems bigger. We can win and don’t have to be sorry for Man United.

‘I have no problems with Van Gaal, but the last thing I want is that he wins a game like this.’

Code:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3484714/Forget-stage-No-1-game-Liverpool-manager-Jurgen-Klopp-fired-red-hot-Manchester-United-rivalry.html
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