Jurgen Klopp Named the Liverpool Game with ‘Best Atmosphere I’ve Ever Experienced’

Few grounds can impact a game like the home fans of Liverpool Football Club can at Anfield. But on mid-week European nights, the 62,000-strong crowd takes their support up to an entirely new gear, and their role as the 12th man has led to some pretty incredible nights for the Reds.

While former manager Jurgen Klopp was in charge of the Merseyside outfit for nine successful years, experiencing all the highs, and some lows, with the club, one European night at Anfield stands out to him in particular, the second-leg of their Europa League quarter-final clash against his former club, Borussia Dortmund.

With the crowd trying – and needing to – will his team to victory with them trailing on the away goals rule, Klopp truly felt in that moment that nobody could stop his team from winning the tie, with it coming down to a stoppage-time winner from Dejan Lovren at the Kop end.

Europa League Clash Against Dortmund Is Klopp’s Most Memorable

Klopp: ‘I felt nobody could stop us’

Having taken over the managerial reins from Brendan Rodgers two months into the 2014-15 season, it was in that same season where Klopp was to be reunited with his former club, Dortmund, with the Reds drawing the Bundesliga outfit in the quarter-finals of the 2016/17 Europa League.

But it was the second leg of the tie, played at Anfield, which has etched a special memory for the man hailed as one of the greatest German managers of all-time, with him calling that night’s atmosphere, via This Is Anfield, as ‘the best he has ever experienced’:

“The atmosphere was the best I have ever experienced. It should serve as an example to everyone about how supporters can influence a team and influence a game. The last half an hour against Dortmund [in the Europa League at Anfield] is the best I’ve ever had. I felt nobody could stop us. I wasn’t sure we would score a goal, but it was crazy.”

While he was feeling the roar and emotions from the home supporters who did their best, as they always do, to get behind the team in their moments of need, Klopp further expressed how he wasn’t entirely sure whether they would be able to help the team score the goals they needed to secure their place in the semi-final, but hindsight is a wonderful thing,

There’s Something About Anfield on European Nights

Liverpool had another epic comeback win to seal a place in the 2016 Europa League Final

Anfield has provided Liverpool fans, and the neutral fans, with boundless – and sometimes miraculous – entertainment, such as the 4-0 comeback win over Barcelona in the second leg of the 2018/19 Champions League, which saw them reach, and win, their sixth title.

But, prior to that, in 2016, the team were getting accustomed to playing Klopp’s style of play, and the personnel looked far different from that incredible run to the Champions League trophy three seasons later.

Vying for a place in that season’s Europa League semi-final, where Spanish club Villarreal awaited, the first leg between Dortmund and Liverpool took place at Signal Iduna Park, with Mats Hummels cancelling out Divock Origi’s opener to send the sides back to Anfield on level terms.

In a win-or-go-home contest, Dortmund hit the ground running from the start of the referee’s whistle, scoring two inside the first 10 minutes after goals from Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. It wouldn’t be until the second half when Origi responded, though Marco Reus restored the visitors’ two-goal cushion on the hour mark.

Trailing by two, and needing three to avoid elimination from the competition, goals from Philippe Coutinho and Mamadou Sakho with 12 minutes left to play gave the Reds a fighting chance to pull off yet another miracle as they had done in Istanbul a decade earlier. With 90 minutes having passed, there were just seconds remaining in stoppage-time for Liverpool to find the crucial winner, and lo-and-behold, they somehow found a way, with Lovren being the man to get his head on the ball from a James Milner cross fired in toward the back-post to secure a stunning comeback victory.

Beaten in Basel

Comfortably beating Villarreal, the Reds could not withstand the kings of the Europa League in the final

With Liverpool’s place in the semi-final secured, they were one step toward achieving their goal of lifting the Europa League trophy. However, in front of 22,000 fans at El Madrigal, the Reds were dealt a blow in the first leg, after conceding a goal in stoppage time, giving Villarreal the advantage.

However, the real advantage belonged to Liverpool, with the raucous crowd of Anfield awaiting their beloved football club once again, and they did their part to inspire a 3-0 victory, with goals from Daniel Sturridge and Adam Lallana sealing their place in the final. Another step closer to their goal.

However, after defeating Shakhtar Donetsk 5-3 on aggregate, fellow finalists Sevilla were hungry for their third consecutive Europa League title, and fifth in their club’s history. Despite Sturridge breaking the deadlock and getting on the score sheet once again, Liverpool’s defence was not able to withstand the onslaught from Sevilla in the second half, conceding three goals with Kevin Gameiro netting the equaliser, before Coke added a brace to seal Liverpool’s fate as runners-up in Basel, Switzerland.

Had the final taken place at Anfield, though, who knows what could have been for Klopp’s side that season. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be, though a Champions League awaited them in 2019, thanks to another miracle night at Anfield helped them reach the final.