"Atalanta is no longer the same as 2020, but Gasperini is still there in Bergamo and is doing an incredible job."
Jurgen Klopp, on the eve of the Europa League quarter-final hosting Atalanta, praises the coach: "It doesn't often happen, as it happens for me here, that I remain in charge of a team for a long time - underlines the Liverpool coach , from whom he has already announced his separation at the end of the season -. You have to live in a club and leave it at the best possible moment, creating a culture. Gasperini is still doing it."
Kloop recalls the double clash in the Europa League group on 3 and 25 November 2020, 5-0 for the Reds away from home and 2-0 for the Nerazzurri at Anfield: "We played in Bergamo during Covid, in a particularly serious situation , and I'm happy that in a week we will find Atalanta in a full stadium - he says -. But this double challenge happened three and a half years ago, we are no longer the same team as we were then. There have probably been around 1500 matches in that period, so I can't compare myself to the team we played with a long time ago. But tomorrow's match will certainly be a difficult match for both teams. Atalanta have changed some players and defend in a different way, even if they remain very dangerous in attack , it's a very organized team but we're not the same either. Playing against Atalanta is like going to the dentist, as Guardiola says? Even facing us is like going to the dentist, believe me."
The home coach denies having the Europa League as his objective: "We just need to think about playing tomorrow's match and winning it and then going through to the next round - continues Klopp -. It will certainly be an open match and I haven't decided who will play yet. we are hastening the return of Diogo Jota and Alexander-Arnold: they must be recovered in the best match rhythm, we will see in the coming weeks." Finally, regarding the possibility of coaching in Italy: "I only know the food of that country, and as for my future as a manager, ask me the same question in a year", the German coach concludes jokingly.