Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp gave his thoughts on The Reds’ “intense” Champions League group.
On Thursday afternoon, the draw was made for the group stage of this season’s premier European competition. Liverpool – one of the top-seeded teams – were drawn alongside Dutch giants Ajax, Serie A’s most-improved team Atalanta and Danish club FC Midtjylland.
Speaking after the event, Klopp admitted to being pleased about the travel requirements and looking forward to an “intense” group where all teams play “real football”.
“I didn’t really think about travelling to be honest, but yeah, Italy, Holland and Denmark are maybe not the furthest [away].
“That’s OK but we don’t think about the miles we make in the Champions League, we think about the games we play and I think it’s a really strong group.
“Everybody knows how good Ajax was two years ago and they will always build a proper new squad and a proper team. Midtjylland is for different reasons since years one of the most interesting teams because they have quite a specific way.
“These are the few informations I have without knowing that we will face them, and Atalanta is obviously a really exciting project since a couple of years. They play pretty good stuff as well so for me it looks like it’s a proper football group.
“All teams try to play real football, all the teams run a lot, so the games will be intense and that we only fly one-and-a-half or two hours instead of four-and-a-half or five, yeah that’s good but we would have played in Moscow or Greece as well, no doubt about that.”
The group stage begins in the week commencing October 19th with the sixth and final matchday taking place in the week of December 7th.
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