Klopp: Rangers mauling the ‘best result Liverpool could have asked for’; praises young duo
Jurgen Klopp has praised “special” Mohamed Salah after he scored the quickest hat-trick in Champions League history in Liverpool’s 7-1 win against Rangers.
The Reds scored six second-half goals at Ibrox on Wednesday night, coming from 1-0 down against the Gers to stroll to an emphatic victory.
Salah was introduced in the 68th minute, scored his first in the 76th minute and completed his hat-trick in the 81st minute.
It was an embarrassing evening for Rangers, who actually played pretty well in the opening 45 minutes.
Liverpool ended up making light work of the Scottish club, to add some confidence to the camp with Manchester City coming to Anfield on Sunday.
It has been a poor start for Klopp’s side, who are currently tenth in the Premier League with only two wins from nine games.
Klopp said he had a “positive half-time talk” which led to a very important win for the Merseyside club.
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“We had a really positive half-time talk,” he said. “We wanted more in the second half. Clearly, it worked out.
“Special, particularly Mo [Salah].
“Very important how we adapted to the positions, to the line-up.
“Everyone who started tonight played really well – Fabio [Carvalho] and Harvey [Elliott], really good. It’s the best we could have asked for. I’m really pleased.
“I really think the first half prepared the second half.
“When we are on it, we can be a really good football team. We built on the good things from the first half, we kept them moving and obviously they had to change the centre-half.
“The goals we scored were exceptional. It’s a night where things worked out for us. It changes the mood definitely, and that’s good.
“We all know who is coming on Sunday (Manchester City). That will be different, but it’s better to go in with the feeling from tonight.”
Virgil van Dijk – who used to play for Rangers’ arch-rivals Celtic – admitted after the game that Liverpool’s attackers will be a huge part of the team getting their season back on track.
“They (Rangers) had to come out so the space was there if you played well and the quality they have they showed again tonight. It’s what we need for the rest of the season,” he told BT Sport.
“It’s not a bad thing winning 7-1. I think from the outside point of view everyone expected us to win.
“We know we are in a tough period and we take it game by game and that’s how we approach it and that’s how we’ll approach the big one on Sunday.”
Rangers manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst says his side “conceded too many easy goals”.
“It was a very disappointing result,” he told BT Sport. “We played well first half and were in the game.
“The second goal – we know their strength. When you lose the ball in the middle of the pitch they are so fast on transition. We got caught a couple of times.
“We conceded too many easy goals. It went pretty quickly after that. We tried to push, but after the 3-1 you could see we were struggling. They upped the tempo and we weren’t accurate in our passing.”
With Rangers bottom of Group A with zero points, Van Bronckhorst said: “I’m not thinking about anything. I’m just processing this defeat.”
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