KLOPP IN CLOUD NINE
Borussia
Dortmund coach Juergen Klopp was delighted to see his side reach the
Champions League final with a 4-3 aggregate win over Real Madrid.
The Bundesliga outfit went into the second leg at the Santiago Bernabeu
with a 4-1 lead, but two late goals from Jose Mourinho's men set up a
tense finale.
Klopp conceded his team were not at their best on
Tuesday but believes they deserve to be in May's final at Wembley,
where they will face either Bayern Munich or Barcelona.
"Unbelievable," Klopp told reporters.
"I have to admit, we played too little football today. During the
second half we played our attacks better. If we converted one of those
chances, the match would have been killed.
"The match had
everything. Real Madrid can play great football and they showed that
today. They had to deliver today and they did.
"We stood up to them. Those are the rules, we won 4-3 and we are deservedly in the final."
Goals from Karim Benzema and Sergio Ramos gave Real – who missed
several chances early on –hope with minutes remaining, but Dortmund held
on.
Klopp said luck played a part for every side who reached
the final and suggested he took inspiration and confidence from the 1997
Dortmund team which won the trophy.
"I talked to manager, Michael Zorc, and that team of 1997 and they were lucky getting to the final, too," he said.
"You have to have luck to reach the final and we now had it twice."
Klopp reserved special praise for striker Robert Lewandowski, who
scored four times in the first leg, and said he handled himself well
after coming in for some over-zealous attention from Real players.
"I wished for 'Lewy' (Lewandowski) to get more protection," he said.
"The way he stayed calm after all those scenes – that is almost superhuman, but we are through, why would we complain?"
Klopp looked ahead to his side's clash against rivals Bayern Munich on
Saturday and said his team still deserved to celebrate reaching the
Champions League final.
"We have one day more off than Bayern
and we will use that day," he said."I myself will have a beer at the
hotel but I won't go out, but I can't keep the boys in there, too.
"And if we get hammered by Bayern – that will be the happiest defeat in the history of the Bundesliga."
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