Jurgen Klopp has warned his Liverpool side that they may face a fight to reach the Champions League semifinal despite coming out as the comfortable first-leg winners against Porto.
Goals from Naby Keita and Roberto Firmino in the first half mean Liverpool are odds-on favourites to reach the last four, but Klopp saw enough from the Portuguese champions - who wasted three excellent openings - to know the return fixture next Wednesday is no foregone conclusion.
Klopp explains: “The game is still on, we have to go there and fight.
“Porto will try to strike back, it will be a tough game but that is what you expect in the quarterfinals of the Champions League.
“There is still a lot to do, the atmosphere will be really tough.
WARNING: Jurgen Klopp. Photo: Photo: Reuters/Carl Recine.
“This is the result we wanted. I’m happy, it’s the first game ahead of an intense second leg. We scored two wonderful goals and controlled the game most of the time... 2-0 is a very good result. We kept the clean sheet, I liked the game. But we knew we cannot decide it here.”
Klopp is fortunate that he will be able to call on Mohamed Salah in Portugal as the Egyptian was lucky to escape without punishment for a misjudged tackle on Porto full-back Danilo.
Salah got the timing of his challenge completely wrong but VAR did not examine the challenge and he will be available for the return.