Liverpool will only deserve to qualify for the Champions League if they finish fourth, says Jurgen Klopp
Liverpool need only a point to finish in the top four
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Your support makes all the difference.Jurgen Klopp insists his Liverpool side deserves a top-four finish as a memorable season reaches its domestic conclusion against Brighton on Sunday.
The small matter of a Champions League final with Real Madrid remains in two weeks but the Liverpool manager is keen to ensure a place in next season’s competition well before the date in Kiev.
To guarantee that, Klopp effectively needs just a point at Anfield against Chris Hughton’s club, although a defeat and a Chelsea victory at Newcastle would see the Blues leapfrog above Liverpool into fourth place.
And, given their efforts in reaching a European final despite not boasting the size of squad of some of their rivals, the German believes his side merits a top-four position.
“I think we deserve it but we have to make the last step,” said Klopp. “If we don’t do it and Chelsea get the spot then they deserve it. It is as simple as that. But over the whole season, what the boys did in the most difficult circumstances, we deserve it.
“Chelsea made five or six changes in midweek. That would not be possible for us, even if we thought about it. These boys have had to fight for each yard, the last six or seven weeks, pretty much the same group. That is the situation.
“I really think they deserve it but we have to make the final step ourselves because nobody will probably help us.”
Liverpool’s astonishing run to this season’s Champions League final has extended the club’s season but also, possibly, provided a distraction with Klopp’s side having drawn with relegated West Brom and Stoke and lost at rivals Chelsea in their last three games.
However, while Klopp is trying to focus purely on the Brighton contest, he does concede that the opportunity to win the Champions League has left his squad on the brink of a season that will live long in the club’s history.
“That’s the best case scenario, yes,” he said. “That is what we are working for, that is what we want. Champions League qualification, so we are in the competition next year, that was the target from the first day. I have said it a few times but if someone said to me on the last day of the season you will have it in your own hands, I would have said, 'okay, I will take that.'
“It would have been possible to have done it a little bit earlier for different reasons, one of the reasons is being in the Champions League itself, but we have to play this game. That is absolutely okay.
“It is a very positive situation at the moment. I cannot think at the moment the Champions League final. I have to think about this game and winning this game and making sure we play Champions League next year and then we have two weeks to prepare for the other game.
“But to be remembered in 500 years then, yes, we have to win the other game for sure. That’s it.”
Meanwhile, Klopp has confirmed that Emre Can, out injured with a back problem since the middle of March, is losing his battle to be fit for the Champions League Final.
“I cannot and I don’t want to close the door on him,” said Klopp. “Of course it would have been better if he had come back on Monday and said ‘all fine, let’s start.’ That would have been three weeks to the final but we will see.”
With Can, 24, out of contract and currently no sign of an end to the impasse in talks over an extension, the German international appears to have played his last game for the Anfield club.
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