Klopp departs having thrust Reds back among Euro elite

Jurgen Klopp has a tendency to mythologise, to both create and burnish a legend. His skill set has rarely seemed to include search-engine algorithms but in 2018 he declared: “If you had Google and put in ‘European nights’ the answer must be: Anfield. That’s really cool.” He is almost right. Google “great European nights” and Anfield features prominently. That is part of Klopp’s legacy.

- RICHARD JOLLY

There may only be two European nights left at Anfield for him; perhaps tonight’s last-eight tie against Atalanta will prove the last, with no semi-final against Benfica or Marseille to follow. There may be no more that cross the barrier into greatness. And yet Klopp will leave Liverpool as the manager who restored the unforgettable European evenings to their fixture list. As with much else he has done at Anfield, he took a historic institution, updated it, added his personal touch, and made Liverpool seem the place to be again.

Which it wasn’t when he joined in 2015. His Anfield bow was a 1-1 draw against Rubin Kazan. In the five years before his appointment, the closest thing Anfield had to a wonderful European night was a Steven Gerrard-inspired turnaround against Napoli. But even that came in a Europa League groupstage game under Roy Hodgson. There was the danger that Rafa Benitez’s 4-0 hammering of Real Madrid in 2009 would remain the last in a long line; that tales of Saint Etienne and Olympiakos and Chelsea and Internazionale and Bruges would have to be retold with ever more lashings of nostalgia.