Jurgen Klopp hails Dublin crowd for 'Special Atmosphere' in Aviva win

At the Aviva yesterday when the players names were getting called out by the stadium announcer, the biggest cheer came at the end when boss Jurgen Klopp was mentioned.

The Dublin crowd loved the energetic German. It’s safe to say that the feeling is mutual for the ex-Borussia Dortmund manager when discussing the 51,122 fans in attendance at the game on Saturday. Himself and his charges even stayed behind after their 3-1 win to sign autographs and pose for selfies with their adoring fans.

When you’ve been to football stadiums all around the world such as Klopp has it takes a special atmosphere to really excite you, an atmosphere such as a pumped up Irish crowd.

“We didn’t talk about it (staying back) but I decided we would do it. I said it a few minutes ago, I was really touched by the atmosphere, to be honest.

“When we came to the stadium, when we drove through the city, when we arrived at the hotel already, that was really, really special today. I heard about it, that Dublin is quite an Liverpool FC city but now I know it and it’s completely different to feel it.

“I thought it makes absolute sense that we try to give a little bit back. When we left the hotel today for the game there were 500 people minimum, but if you give one autograph then it disappoints the 499 because we don’t have time, so that’s difficult. Today we tried to spread it a little bit. Hopefully we can make a lot of these fans happy, because they made us happy.

“Before the game it was outstanding, during the game it was outstanding, after the game it was special. So really, thank you Dublin, that was a really special experience.

Klopp was also impressed with what he saw on the pitch saying; “I said before the game that pre-season so far has been really good. We’ve played a lot of games and we didn’t lose one, we had two draws and lost on a penalty shootout to Atletico, but that’s a good sign.

“Performance-wise, most of the time was good or even better. A few weaknesses we saw today. First half an hour, I’d say [we played] brilliant football and then we lost organisation and gave them two opportunities and changed the game a little bit. 

“Then we had to run and I was not happy with these 15 minutes but on the other hand it’s very important that you have it, because perfection in pre-season is the biggest mistake you can make because it always leads to the wrong decisions.

“We know we have to be really concentrated to be really stable, and when we are stable we are a real threat and we can play really good football. You could see in the second half that we had a very young side and struggled a little bit in the beginning, but then opened our chest and played. It was nice to see, we looked smart, so I’m happy.

Read the full match report from our reporter in the Aviva Stadium here.