Genk vs Liverpool: Klopp urges Liverpool to improve away record in Champions League

Posted Wednesday, October 23, 2019 by PA

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp accepts his side will not be so lucky this season if they do not improve their Champions League away record.

For a team which has reached successive finals, Liverpool’s record on the road in the group stage is terrible as they prepare for the trip to Genk in Group E.

They have lost their last four away games, scoring only once, and have not won any of the previous five with the last victory on the road in Europe in the group stage at Maribor two years ago.

That success in Slovenia remains their only victory in the last 10 away group matches.

Liverpool scraped through last season with a 1-0 win over Napoli in their final home game, three Anfield victories giving them nine points and second place in their group.

“Last year we were lucky with how tight the group was that we could lose three times away and still have a chance to make it through the group. That will not happen this year. It’s completely different,” said Klopp.

“We don’t rely on home games or whatever. Obviously we like to say European nights at Anfield are really special but other teams can make a special atmosphere as well.

“They are not all the same, we could have won away games to be honest performance-wise which we didn’t win for some reason.

“We know it’s not historically good what we have done (in the away group games) in the last few years, but in general the Champions League was obviously really good.

“We did the right things in the right moment but we don’t rely on these things. We know we have to improve and we try again and again and again until it works out.”

Their away form is something of a mystery for a side which has reached back-to-back Champions League finals, winning their sixth European Cup against Tottenham in Madrid in June.

Genk striker Ally Mbwana Samatta grew up as a boyhood Manchester United fan and he hopes to take inspiration from their performance against Liverpool at Old Trafford.

The 26-year-old was born and raised in Tanzania, from where he followed English football, but it was the red of Manchester and not Merseyside which caught his eye.

As he prepares to go up against the defending champions in what he calls a “dream” game he hopes he can delight the thousands of fans watching back home.

“When I was a kid I used to support a Manchester United but we are not talking about Manchester United right now, we are talking about Liverpool,” he admitted.

“We believe Liverpool are a strong team now in the Premier League and European competition and we expect a tough game. We will try to break them down.

“We are playing in front of our own supporters so we want to be happy at the end of the game. We will do our best.

“I think it is a dream game. When you play football you dream about these kind of games.

“As a kid you watched these kind of games but now you are on the pitch playing the game.

“Everyone (in Tanzania) is talking about the game tomorrow, talking about Ally and (Virgil) Van Dijk, saying I have to do something against him, go past him, dribble.

“I think a lot of them will watch the game tomorrow.”