Liverpool vs Stoke: Capital One Cup success could be remembered in 200 years, says Jurgen Klopp
Liverpool will aim to win a ninth League Cup on February 28, against either Everton or Manchester City
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Your support makes all the difference.Jurgen Klopp insisted Liverpool’s progression to the Capital One Cup final will be ‘remembered in 200 years’ only if his players emerge from Wembley with silverware next month.
Liverpool will aim to win a ninth League Cup on February 28, against either Everton or Manchester City, after a 6-5 penalty shoot-out victory against Stoke at Anfield confirmed their place in the final.
But having lost the Champions League final with Borussia Dortmund against Bayern Munich on his visit to Wembley in 2013, Klopp claimed that a final is no place for losers.
“Hopefully it will be a really good night in London,” Klopp said. “I saw it in the face of my players, but we should not talk about it because it is only an opportunity to win.
“If you win, everybody remembers in 200 years, but if you lose, a few weeks later it is forgotten.
“It is about playing the game, it’s not important what it means to you four weeks from now.
“You have to be a real competitor in the final, then if we win, we will see what it means to us.
“But I am still hurt from what happened with Dortmund at Wembley, so while Wembley is a cool place to play football, we go there to win. It's not much fun to lose.
“We only play this game to win things – points, cups, whatever – so we have to fight for this.”
Two shoot-out saves by goalkeeper Simon Mignolet, who denied Peter Crouch and Marc Muniesa from the spot, secured Liverpool’s victory.
But Klopp admitted that he did not see any of the penalties having chosen instead to watch the crowd.
“I did not see one shot,” Klopp said. “I was behind the wall of my players, so I had to watch it from there. I will watch it on television at home, but it felt good watching the crowd instead.
“But I am really pleased to be in a cup final, for my players, because they deserved it. So many things happened in the last weeks.
“It was really difficult, we had 500 balls into the box. We are here saying things, but it is not easy with Crouch backing into you and making it difficult.”
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