UCL: How we caged AC Milan forward Ibrahimovic – Liverpool boss Klopp
Liverpool manager, Jurgen Klopp, has explained how his team kept AC Milan star Zlatan Ibrahimovic quiet on Tuesday night.
The Reds claimed a 2-1 win at San Siro to become the only English side ever to win all six Champions League group stage matches.
Key to victory was shutting down Ibrahimovic, to which Klopp explained: “That’s football actually – that’s what you try, you organise a football team like that, that he cannot get the balls he needs or he wants. I really thought we defended exceptionally well.
“The plan of Milan is playing through the centre obviously, playing through the half-spaces. This is the spaces between the winger and our eights.
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“They don’t play immediately to Zlatan, they try to bring it to the other offensive player in these spaces, and we made that really complicated because of the disciplined work of all the players. When you then get only the other balls, not the controlled ones then it’s easier to defend.
“But I have to say that Nat Phillips and Ibou Konate played an exceptional game, an absolutely exceptional game. How they defended that tonight is outstanding and I am really, really proud of the boys.”