Jurgen Klopp names Liverpool star who 'saved' Reds in LASK win
- Liverpool cruised to a 4-0 win over LASK on Thursday evening
- Victory sealed a spot in the Europa League last 16
- Jurgen Klopp believes the win was not always as comfortable as it seemed
By Tom Gott
Jurgen Klopp has heaped praise on Liverpool defender Jarell Quansah for "saving" the team in Thursday's 4-0 win over LASK.
Luis Diaz, Cody Gakpo and Mohamed Salah were all on target for Liverpool, who sealed their spot as winners of their Europa League group with a game to spare.
While the scoreline suggests it was a comfortable evening for Liverpool, Klopp admitted his side had some nervy moments and praised 20-year-old Quansah for his work protecting Caoimhin Kelleher in goal.
"Absolutely perfect," Klopp said of the young defender. "Jarell played a super game.
"We knew we had Jarell. Did we know that he will show up like this? No, not exactly, but we were pretty hopeful, so the future is bright. It's cool.
"Our own boy, calm on the ball, good in the challenge, quick, ruthless in the right moments and besides Caoimhin, who had one or two saves, [he] probably had the most spectacular defensive situations when he saved our backside in some moments. So, that's really good. [It's] top news for us."
Toulouse's draw with Union SG ensured Liverpool can no longer be caught at the top of Group E - a huge boost for Klopp as he can now afford to rest his key players when they close out the current stage against the Belgian side later this month.
"Two top results for us tonight in the group," Klopp said. "It was clear, with the defeat at Toulouse we made it a bit more tricky, but because of our result and their result [tonight] we are now top of the table and that will not change. That's good, very important in the busy, busy, busy schedule we have from now on.
"[There were] a lot of positives in the game, a lot of good football. The thing I didn't like too much, and told the boys at half-time, [was] this game should have been put to bed already at half-time. A third, fourth, fifth goal... you cannot play better, you cannot set it up better, [but] you can finish it better obviously, but we didn't.
"So, what was it? Fifty-something [minutes] when we scored the third? That's then very helpful as well. We made changes and lost a bit of rhythm. Then you see immediately, if you don't play you will not stay in charge of the game. If you lose balls in the wrong moment, LASK was there, had chances, Caoimhin worked for his clean sheet, which he desperately wanted, and that's good. Scored a fourth goal in the last minute or whatever, so result top, performance really good [and] nobody got injured. All good."
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