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Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp still rates Man City as Europe’s best team as his side prepare to tackle the English champs in a mouth-watering Premier League duel.
Liverpool’s current searing form means that Jurgen Klopp won’t need to deliver a pep talk to his players before facing Manchester City, a team he still rates as the best in Europe.
An 18-match unbeaten run stretching back to April has been supplemented by Klopp’s side rediscovering their clinical streak as they are averaging 2.8 goals per game this season, having scored three or more in their last six matches.
City, the team who dethroned Liverpool as Premier League champions last season and won at Anfield for the first time since 2003, have meanwhile shown some fallibility en route to Sunday’s Premier League showdown.
(Photo by Diego Souto/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images)
They have already lost to Tottenham and Paris Saint-Germain but they remain formidable, having conceded just one league goal so far and scored five-plus goals on four occasions in all competitions.
Liverpool, top of the table heading into the weekend, are the Premier League’s only unbeaten team and they’re also the league’s leading scorers, with eight-goal Mohamed Salah back on top form having scored in every match bar one this season.
“We have a positive view at the moment and we like the football we play. We will use the pictures from the Chelsea (whom City beat last weekend) and PSG games but it is different to play Man City,” said Klopp.
“It is a really special game of the season, every year, it is always the same. It has to be really high intensity because if it is not high intensity then City are really difficult to play against.
“You have to be brave, front-footed, cheeky in moments and be your best version and then you have a chance.
“We are in a good moment but that’s what we have to be to have a chance against them as they are still, for me, probably the best team in Europe at the moment.
“It is a complex football challenge – but thank God for both teams, that is what makes it so exciting.”
City manager Pep Guardiola said on Friday that his rivalry with Klopp has spurred him on.
“He helped me, his teams helped me, to be a better manager. He put me at another level to think and to prove to myself what I have to do to be a better manager. That’s the reason why I’m still in this business.
“There are some managers, and Jurgen is one of them, who challenge you to make a step forward.
“We have faced each other many times. Sometimes we win and we sometimes lose but every game was nice because both teams have the same idea, go out there to try to score goals.”
© AAP
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