Jurgen Klopp praised Carlo Ancelotti and “outstanding” Lorenzo Insigne. “I don’t see a gap between Napoli and Liverpool.”
Liverpool won their dramatic opener against Paris Saint-Germain, while the Partenopei were held 0-0 by Red Star Belgrade.
“I like Carlo Ancelotti, he is a fantastic guy. As we say in Germany ‘He is obviously a smart fox’,” said Klopp in his Press conference.
Jurgen Klopp praised Carlo Ancelotti and “outstanding” Lorenzo Insigne. “I don’t see a gap between Napoli and Liverpool.”
Liverpool won their dramatic opener against Paris Saint-Germain, while the Partenopei were held 0-0 by Red Star Belgrade.
“I like Carlo Ancelotti, he is a fantastic guy. As we say in Germany ‘He is obviously a smart fox’,” said Klopp in his Press conference.
“He says all these positive things about us and all these nice things about me is nice, but it is tactics, it starts already.
“Carlo is so long in the business and he wants to bring the nice fella out in me, but I am ready for a real battle.
“I don’t care too much what people say about us in the moment. Yes, we have performed on a consistent, OK, level in the last few weeks, but tomorrow we need to make the next step up in our development.
“This is a fantastic manager, a fantastic football team and a very emotional crowd so that will be a challenge.
“I don’t see a gap between Napoli and us. The atmosphere in a stadium is always a benefit. I enjoy it actually. It’s not that a team can’t perform in an emotional environment.”
Klopp chose the man to watch out for in the Napoli squad, one he already knows well.
“Insigne is an outstanding player. I’ve had to analyse him a few times. He’s still fantastic. I don’t remember his goal (against Dortmund), as bad things I filter immediately.”
Klopp was sent off for dissent at the Stadio San Paolo in 2013 when he was still in charge of Borussia Dortmund.
“It was not my best performance, personally,” he added.
“I reacted in a way which was absolutely not OK. I still understand why I was not happy with the situation, only the reaction was too much.
“I tried to go in the stand and it was not nice, sitting there and getting all the comments from people around, so that is why I decided second half I had to do something about it and I was then with the groundsman in that little room with a big Maradona shirt on the wall.
“It was one of the better experiences I had to be honest, watching it with the groundsman. I hear he’s still here – that would be nice.
“They gave me two games (ban). Since then nothing happened anymore, so it was my last time when I was a bit too excited. Now I know it will not happen again.”
When the draw for this Champions League group was made, Liverpool had only recently beaten Napoli 5-0 in a friendly.
“It was a pre-season friendly, nothing else. We scored with each shot. Napoli had a lot of chances.
“It’s not important and we didn’t talk about that game for one second.”