Liverpool vs Barcelona: The Dortmund game that could be key to a Jurgen Klopp Champions League comeback

Klopp has almost overturned a three-goal deficit before and it has given him hope of going one step further this time around

Three goals down to a giant of European football with a second leg at home to turn the tie around. Jurgen Klopp has been here before and he did not emerge out the other side victorious. He did not even force extra time. He came close, though. Close enough to take hope, five years on.

“My own personal little story is about Real Madrid, years ago with Dortmund,” Klopp said in a corridor at Anfield yesterday. “We lost 3-0 there but then at home we changed seven or eight positions and we won 2-0. We should have won 5-0, without a shadow of a doubt. We were clearly the better side.”

Only one team in the Champions League era had ever overturned a three-goal first leg deficit back then, in the spring of 2014. Two Marco Reus goals were not enough to make Dortmund the second. Only two sides have either matched or surpassed that feat since. That, put simply, is the scale of the task facing Klopp and Liverpool tonight.

And yet, though Dortmund fell short in that quarter-final, Klopp believes there are lessons to be learned from that victory in defeat. He has already spoken to his players about it this week. “You could make a video of this game and show it to the teams that lose a first leg 3-0,” he said at the time.

Carlo Ancelotti’s Real Madrid overpowered Dortmund in that first leg. Gareth Bale opened the scoring after just three minutes. “Too easy,” was Klopp’s reaction. “Two against one on the wing and two against none in the area.” Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo then added two more. All three went unanswered. There was no away goal.

Madrid would ultimately win the competition, scoring 41 goals on their way to a tenth European Cup and their first of four over the next five years. Add those 41 goals to the 104 scored in La Liga and, even though they finished third domestically that year, it is clear that Madrid were a formidable attacking force.

In the return leg, Angel di Maria could quite easily have added to that tally by converting an early penalty. A shot count split 12-10 in Dortmund’s favour hardly suggests a defensive masterclass on Klopp’s part, either. But Dortmund shut Madrid out in the return leg at Signal Iduna Park, largely limiting them to half chances, the ball driven at goal from non-threatening positions.

This was despite Klopp tinkering with his team. There were four personnel changes in total – Robert Lewandowski returned from suspension but out went Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang, Nuri Sahin, Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Sebastian Kehl. “We had a couple [of injuries] but we changed the team on purpose, more or less,” Klopp remembered on Monday.

In their places came a young and unproven forward in Milos Jojic, a 34-year-old centre-half in Manuel Friedrich and a unheralded defensive midfielder in Oliver Kirch. That trio had made a combined total of three Champions League appearances for Dortmund that season. It was Kirch’s first of the campaign in all.

Kirch, though, was named man-of-the-match, having dominated a midfield against Xabi Alonso and Luka Modric. “Oli Kirch was a really good player,” Klopp said on Monday. “He had only played a couple of games, but that was the eye opener for the whole world. Everyone was thinking: ‘Who is that guy?’ He played an unbelievable game that night against Madrid.”

And though that night can be filed alongside many other of the sport’s ifs, buts and near misses, Dortmund came within inches of eradicating that first-leg deficit. Reus’ two goals were followed by Henrikh Mkhitaryan rounding Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas but striking the upright. They would not get a better chance to force an extra 30 minutes and a potential penalty shoot-out.

Will Barcelona suffer a similar fright? Will Klopp make a host of unexpected changes again? Will Liverpool have their own Oliver Kirch? If they do, he may come from the other end of the age spectrum. With both Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino unavailable, teenager Rhian Brewster is expected to be named among the substitutes. The 19-year-old is yet to make his first senior appearance but it may well come in a Champions League semi-final.

The absences of Salah and Firmino also present opportunities for the likes of Divock Origi and Xherdan Shaqiri – bit-part players who have made telling contributions at key points already this season, not least this past weekend, when they combined to score the late winner at St James’ Park and keep the Premier League title race alive heading into the final weekend.

Reaching next month’s showpiece in Madrid will be a very tall order but it is not an impossible one. That Madrid side scored 145 goals in the league and Champions League. This year’s Barcelona – widely expected to score at Anfield – have 112 so far by comparison. They have only been prevented from scoring twice this season when Lionel Messi has started a game. But then Barcelona have met few defences as mean when at home as Liverpool’s.

If Klopp’s class of 2019 can execute his instructions as well as the 2014 alumni, only with a touch more luck, then this tie may not be such a foregone conclusion. The parallels between the two ties are alluring. They are, perhaps, the one straw left for Liverpool to clutch. “It doesn’t mean that it will happen again,” Klopp admitted. “But it is enough for me to believe.”