The Midfielder duo were named in the Liverpool squad ahead of their trip to Paris for the Champions League finals against Real Madrid. the duo has been sensational for Jurgen Klopp’s sides this season helping them win the FA Cup and The Carabao Cup.
Fabinho was injured in Liverpool’s 2-1 victory against Aston Villa in the Premier League and missed the remaining part of the season including the FA Cup finals against Chelsea. Thiago Alcantara was also injured in Liverpool’s last Premier League game against the Wolves.
According to Jurgen Klopp, the two players were able to train perfectly and are in contention to play in the finals on Saturday.
What did Jurgen Klopp say?
Speaking at the final press conference ahead of Saturday finals he said: “Yeah, looks good for both.
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“Fabinho trained completely normally. Thiago trained yesterday with the team, will train today, and then we will go from there.”
Jurgen Klopp also raised issues with the quality of the pitch ahead of Saturday’s game.
Klopp said: “Usually when you say the pitch looks new that’s good news.
“This pitch has been new since yesterday, that’s not the best news. But for both teams. I have no idea how it will be now out there on the pitch but we will do a completely normal session that we planned to do. It’s not a lot obviously at this moment of the season.
“ I saw the refs a bit with their session, the good news is the ball drops normal, that’s helpful.
“You can see the lines where they put the different pieces of the pitch in; that’s not probably what we are all used to. But, again, that’s not a problem because the good news is both teams play on this pitch.
“ That somebody thought it’s a good idea to bring the pitch the day before the game into the stadium, that’s an interesting idea, to be honest. It didn’t kill my mood for a percent. I’m really happy that we are here.
“Now we are here and we play the game and that’s it. As long as both teams have the same circumstances, I’m fine with it.”
The German coach also shared his thoughts on whether the pitch could affect the quality of the game and what a win will mean to them.
He continued: “let’s start with the pitch. I think both teams are technical and you would wish in dreamland that the pitch is the best you ever saw in your life. That’s not the case.
“You will hear the same from Carlo [Ancelotti, after Real train]. Yes, definitely if you win then you don’t care about the pitch, that is easy to say. I don’t know how bad it is or how good it is, to be honest, because I only saw it now.
“The referees were training on it, I saw the ball bouncing [and] that is good news. Now we will train on it and maybe it’s perfect and just does not look perfect, we will see that.
“ That’s it. I hope nobody made a story, ‘Klopp is moaning about the pitch’ because I am not. I am not, it is fine. When you see it you think it could look different but let’s get a feeling for it.
“That’s very important. Usually, these kinds of sessions are more for the media because you want us to be here, we have to be here, UEFA tells us to be here. Today I am really happy that we are here because we can now feel it and can pass a few balls and we will see.
“It would mean a lot, of course. That’s the world of sports, that’s the world we are living in, we get judged by the final result.
“ I think if you are a football person then you know what my boys did so far this season is exceptional, but of course in the end it’s all measured by the color of the medal you get after a game.
“That’s how it is and we are fine with that, we are ready for that, but history will tell us what people say about us because of these kinds of games.
“ I am more than happy and very proud of what we did so far. It’s pretty special. A lot of games, a lot of finals, a lot of tight, close decisions like penalty shootouts, stuff like this.
“There might be people out there who think, ‘They only won in penalty shootouts.’ Believe me, after 120 minutes of playing Chelsea then being ready still for the penalty shootout is one of the most difficult things you can imagine.
“From my point of view I will feel better if we win the game, definitely, much better and that, at the moment, is the only thing I’m concerned about: how we can make sure that will happen.”
