Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino have been ruled out of the Liverpool’s Champions League semi-final, the second-leg tie against Barcelona on Tuesday. This was Jürgen Klopp confirmed in a Press statement on Monday.
This news no doubt is a major blow to manager Jurgen Klopp, and for the Liverpool fans, who were hoping for a quick recovery from the Egyptian, after he was forced out of the game on Saturday against Newcastle United.
Although he scored in that game, and Liverpool won by 2-3, to move back to the top of the Premier League table ahead of Man City, Salah was unable to continue after suffering a concussion.
Another man who will also miss the second leg, just like he missed the first leg, is Roberto Firmino, who is still continuing his recovery from a muscle injury.
Liverpool’s manager Jurgen Klopp who confirmed this news, at a press conference, said:
“Both are not available for tomorrow,”
“It’s a concussion [for Salah], so that means he would not even be allowed to play. That’s it, that’s all.
“He feels OK, but it is not good enough from a medical point of view, that’s all. He is desperate and everything, but we cannot do it. That’s it.” He said.
Klopp confirmed he expects Salah to be available for Sunday’s final Premier League game of the season at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Liverpool are already with a three goals deficit, in the tie, after they were thrashed by Barcelona at Camp Nou some days back, via a Lionel Messi’s magic. But knowing that they are going to be needing a lot of goals if they hope to advance to the finals of the Champions League, Klopp is ready to do everything to make the game a difficult one for Barcelona. He said:
“The approach? We try to win the game, I thought that makes sense.
“Look, the situation with the 3-0 for Barcelona is obviously not exactly the situation you want to have before you play the second leg – and you cannot play against Barcelona and tell the world, ‘Watch this!’, after 10 minutes we are level and we try to turn it around or whatever. It’s not like this.
“We try to win the game and if the result we have in a specific moment gives us an opportunity to go to the next round, I think we should try. Until then, we just have to try to win the game and that’s the way we will do it, together with our supporters.
“It was a long season and there’s at least a little chance to make it even longer, but if not then these are the last two home games of an incredible season and I think we should celebrate that with a good performance on the pitch and with a very, very good performance in the stands. That would be really nice.” he said.