Liverpool have ‘learned to win’ as they prepare for Real Madrid revenge

PARIS — Liverpool vs Real Madrid. Paris. Champions League final. Does it get much bigger, and better, than this?

No. It doesn’t.

[ PREVIEW: Liverpool vs Real Madrid in UCL final ] 

As the sun shone on the Stade de France on Friday, Jurgen Klopp’s smile matched the mood as the Liverpool boss spoke to the media in the northern suburbs of sprawling Paris.

The relaxed and happy demeanor of the Liverpool boss seeped into his players as Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold were all smiles as they spoke to the media, then his team out in their training session laughed, joked and couldn’t have been more in control.

That is because of one thing: Klopp and Liverpool have ‘learned how to win’ and that is why they look like they are supremely comfortable ahead of this mammoth final in Paris.

Asked by ProSoccerTalk about that defeat to Real Madrid in Kiev in 2018 and what has changed for his team and how they could help them on Sunday, here is Klopp’s monologue, which he delivered with a few smiles and then more than a few reflective gazes as he looked back on how far they’ve come over the last four years.

“In the world out there, whatever you do, you have to gain experience. So, on the first day when you do a job it’s not that you say, ‘Oh my God, that was the best day in my life and I knew everything that I had to do.’ But then from there you go and maybe you have your first little success here, little things you achieve there and then all of a sudden you are on a big stage and you have to deliver,” Klopp explained.

“We delivered that night but the circumstances hit us and we couldn’t react and we couldn’t react because it was a long season as well that time, when we arrived pretty much on three wheels. I think we didn’t have