Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp targets Europa League title
Thursday 18 February 2016 07:16, UK
Jurgen Klopp believes Liverpool are genuine contenders for the Europa League and accepts winning the competition may be the club's best route back into the Champions League.
The Reds have struggled for consistency in the Premier League this season and are nine points behind Manchester City, who currently occupy the fourth and final Champions League qualification spot.
With only 12 matches of the Premier League season remaining, Klopp concedes Liverpool need one of the current top four clubs to suffer a "crisis" in order to stand any chance of overhauling them.
And with that in mind, the Liverpool manager feels success in the Europa League may represent a more realistic chance for his side to rejoin the continent's elite.
"A few teams in the world can think about winning the Europa League and I think we are one of these teams," Klopp said ahead of Liverpool's last-32 clash with FC Augsburg.
"We don't have to say 'we have no chance' but if you look at the teams in the competition now, it is like a little Champions League.
"Sometimes you can look at winning a cup as the shortest way to get somewhere but for sure, the Europa League is not the shortest way to get to the Champions League. It is a really hard race.
"The chance to qualify for the Champions League makes it more interesting - ask Sevilla (Europa League winners four times in the last 10 years), who would have qualified many times with this rule.
"We are in the last 32. We can see the line but I cannot say now, 'This is our only chance of being in the Champions League'. It's a chance.
"How many points in the league are we away from the Champions League? I think it is nine. So, yeah, at this moment I would say we have a better chance this way at the moment.
"Maybe the top-four clubs will have a crisis but we have to solve our own problems.
"We have to be at the highest motivation for the game without thinking about the last moment and knowing the possibility."
Klopp also has the luxury of being able to focus just on the Europa League, with Liverpool not involved in FA Cup action at the weekend.
With his injury problems beginning to ease, he is expected to name a strong side against Augsburg, who are struggling in the Bundesliga.
"We haven't been able to pick a consistent team so far for different reasons," Klopp added.
"If you have a pre-season and no injuries, then you can play a lot of times with a similar if not the same team - the biggest teams in the world are doing this.
"I don't want to compare ourselves with Barcelona but three of these players (Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar) play all of the time.
"Listen, we played Sunday and we play Thursday, that's a good gap, enough time to recover, no problem. It's nothing.
"We then play Thursday-Thursday, so no problems again. We then have a final (Capital One Cup on the Sunday).
"Before a final, you don't have to think about anything because you don't need to be recovered. You could play the final on Friday."
