The two clubs will meet each other on Tuesday night at Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano for the first time since the 2018 final, where Zinedine Zidane's team claimed a 3-1 victory.
Speaking to reporters from the Spanish capital on Monday evening, Klopp stressed plenty has changed since that Kiev encounter and went on to detail the Reds' motivation to finish the 2020-21 season on a high note.
Read on for a transcript of the boss' pre-match press conference...
On whether he saw the game at Arsenal at the weekend as a 'test of character' for Trent Alexander-Arnold...
It was clear that people would say things like this and how it works that we have to give somebody a proper knock and then he shows a reaction. I don't understand life like this, I don't understand education like this. For me, it's different. You can do it obviously by showing trust and faith in somebody and then he can succeed. Or you can leave him out and then he shows a reaction. Whatever you want. For us it was not a character test or whatever. What we did was not two weeks working on how we can show Gareth Southgate that he was not right with his decision. What we wanted to do was for Trent to play his best football – what he did quite a few times for us in the past. That was all. We didn't see it as a test, we just thought it was an important game so let's prepare for it.
On three successive clean sheets and how much he puts that down to being able to start the same back four in each of those games...
It's a reason. It's not the only reason but it's a reason, 100 per cent. It helps massively if you work longer together and play longer together. But I said it after the game directly, [it was] very important that the whole set-up, the whole line-up defended with big determination, massively disciplined, it was everything what you need, close the right spaces, everybody felt responsible. That makes a difference. Tomorrow will be a proper test for that, by the way, because the opponent obviously asks for defensive organisation and we can show there that they are on the right path.
On whether the 2018 Champions League final has come into his thinking in the build-up to the game and how strong the team's motivation is...
The motivation is the highest level because it's Champions League, we want to go to the next round. We play Real Madrid – that has nothing to do with 2018. But when I got the draw, because [it was] the first time that we played Real Madrid since then, of course I remembered the game. I said it after the game that time, if somebody asked in a press conference a week later, maybe a month later, if I would invite Sergio Ramos to my 60th birthday, I would have said no. Meanwhile, I would think about it again because he's a great footballer. But of course I said that I didn't like what happened that night. It was for us a strange night but it's completely normal. But it's long ago and I cannot get that feeling back, that anger or whatever, so I don't even try. What I try is to prepare my team for tomorrow to show how good we are as a football team in a strange season obviously, in a difficult season for us. But we want to show how good we are. And if we are better than Real Madrid or score more goals or whatever, then we go to the next round. And if not, then Real Madrid.
On whether Liverpool will go 'on the front foot' because they still have the same attack from the 2018 final and they've already shown they can 'damage' Real Madrid...
We were good in the game, that's true. And after that [Mohamed Salah's injury], we were not in the game anymore and Real came up and started dominating the game. Actually, our team is built for these kind of games. We face a football-playing side, which is very helpful for football in general but for our kind of defending as well, and that's why we have a chance, absolutely. I heard outside already everybody says Real Madrid is favourite – great, no problem at all with that. They are used to the role and we have no problem with the role of the challenger. How I said, we want to give it a proper try. We know that we were good that night but 25 minutes being really good in the final was never enough, and nobody's interested when they look back in 10, 15 years how we played the first 25 minutes – but we knew it anyway. But it was a different time, we were in a different place, since then a lot of things happened. So, we feel good in our situation but we know that we face a difficult opponent of course.
On whether Liverpool's position in the Premier League means they are even more determined to show the world how good they can be in this competition…
I'm not so determined to show the world how good we are, I want to show our fans that we are still fighting, to be honest. That's much more important to me. If people think because we don't play a good situation I am a worse manager, I don't like that but I don't care, to be honest. It's like this. We had some problems; if you are with us, you know about the problems and all these kind of things. So it's not about that. It's about [that] we want to get whatever is possible out of this season. So we said it a lot of times – until a specific moment in the season you create a basis and then there is the finishing part of the season. And we are in that. We have created reasonably better basis [before] than we have this season. But we are still in a fight, all of a sudden for the Champions League spots as well again.
I gave an interview, I think, after the Leipzig game, to Lothar Matthaus in Germany and I honestly thought it doesn't look really likely that there is any chance for us to qualify through the league for the Champions League – and all of a sudden we are two or three points behind. So of course that's possible with the number of games we have, even when have a really tough programme. So things are really in the flow and we have to keep contact with that; we have to chase now the team ahead of us, and we have to chase Real Madrid tomorrow. They are in a very good moment, a really good moment. Yes, Ramos injured and stuff like this, Carvajal not there, all these kind of things. But a really good team, a really good moment, very experienced – if somebody knows how to win the Champions League, [it's] Real Madrid obviously. And we are the opponent and I think we should give it a proper try.
On whether he would regret it if he doesn't coach Real at some point in his career…
I said if I had at the end of my career only three clubs, which would be Mainz, Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool, then it's not too bad. I would not regret it. You ask if I would regret it if I never would manage Real Madrid? Was that the question? I don't think so. But when we came out of the plane today, I regret already that we don't live here because the weather is so much better here. You cannot imagine, we were freezing – I had a gilet with me and all these kind of things. You are blessed, to be honest, living here. We go the hard way! We do it the hard way.
On which Spanish club he thinks his football identity most closely resembles, including the likes of Real, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid…
Oh, I have to think. They are three good football clubs. I would like to see it like I would fit to all of them, to be 100 per cent honest. The only problem is I have no time and my Spanish is really bad! So you would not enjoy that, having me in Spain and then I speak always this broken Spanish and always make this joke about ordering a beer. You cannot work with that for a long time! All the clubs here have great managers. Real Mallorca would be nice – to live at least!
On whether he sees this tie as 'revenge', either for losing the 2018 final or for the Premier League season…
In general it's no revenge, we are not on a revenge tour here. Life is like this. You try everything to win a game, you lose it and then you meet the opponent again one day. And sometimes it's close enough, like a week later or two weeks later, and you can have this kind of emotion still in you. But I don't believe too much in revenge. But it would be nice to get through against Real Madrid because it would mean we are in the next round – and that's actually what we want to do. They are outstanding, Zinedine and the boys know exactly how it goes. So, no, we are not here for revenge. And actually there's nothing to do with the Premier League situation as well. We feel quite in a good moment in the moment in the Premier League. We had good games before the international break, came out with a really good game after the international break and now we hope we can keep the momentum obviously. That would be very helpful because we should play better and a really good game tomorrow night, otherwise we don't have a chance.
On whether he could field Roberto Firmino, Diogo Jota, Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah together on Tuesday night…
You have to wait until the first whistle tomorrow night. Did Zinedine say anything about the line-up in the press conference? We will see what we do with that. But it looked good [against Arsenal], hey? It looked really good. It looked good in the first half at least against Man City as well, I liked it a lot. There will be a moment when we give it a try. Is it tomorrow? We will see.
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