Jurgen Klopp believes Liverpool’s mentality was far more important than their quality as they edged past Nottingham Forest 1-0 in the FA Cup.
The Premier League side were a long way from their best and given a real scare by Forest, but Diogo Jota’s late winner sealed their place in the semi-finals at Wembley, where they will face Manchester City.
Forest had knocked out Arsenal and Leicester earlier in the competition, and Klopp had little interest in analysing the level of performance his side produced as they avoided being added to that list of upsets.
“It was apart from a few moments exactly what I expected,” Klopp said.
“We watched the games against Arsenal and Leicester, it was no coincidence it could happen here. Steve Cooper is doing a brilliant job - they were really in the game, really fighting.
“They were dangerous, so we had to be careful and really alert.
“We couldn’t do more than put a proper fight in. It was not a game tonight where we could outplay them easily for a number of reasons.
“Cup ties are not about quality, cup ties are about who wants it more. We wanted it as much as they wanted it and it made the difference.
“It’s all fine. The result in the cup is the only thing that count. If we’d have played the best game of the season tonight, it wouldn’t have helped in the City game and this performance does not harm us.”
Liverpool’s battle with City for the Premier League title looks set to go down to the wire, and they will now meet for a place in the FA Cup final as well.
The two sides could also face each other in the Champions League final should they both make it that far and Klopp admits he does not particularly relish regularly coming up against Pep Guardiola’s side.
“City doesn’t like that too much, we don’t like that too much,” Klopp said.
“The closer it gets to the end, the more likely it is you will face City. That’s normal and the same with Chelsea.
“You don’t want to play against them every week because they are really strong. But I don’t think it’s a pure joy to play us, we shouldn’t forget that.
