Klopp's Reds eye Anfield immortality

As Liverpool fans all around Anfield celebrated their Champions League semifinal first-leg victory over Villarreal, it was fitting they chose a Beatles song to serenade the mastermind of their team's bid for soccer immortality.

In recent months, Jurgen Klopp has been feted by supporters who have turned The Beatles' I Feel Fine into a song of praise for the Liverpool manager.

"Jurgen said to me, you know. We'll win the Premier League, you know. He said so. I'm in love with him and I feel fine," they chant from the Kop.

Never has the work of Merseyside's most famous musical sons been more appropriate than on Wednesday.

Liverpool won 2-0 against a Villarreal team nicknamed the "Yellow Submarine" since the 1960s when the Spanish club's fans used The Beatles song of the same name in tribute to their yellow shirts.

Villarreal tried to frustrate Liverpool with a defensive game plan－a formula that had earned it shock wins over Juventus and Bayern Munich in the previous two rounds－but Klopp's men torpedoed them with a patient display.

It took 53 minutes to break down Villarreal's stubborn rearguard, when Jordan Henderson's cross deflected off Pervis Estupinan and looped into the net.

Two minutes later, Sadio Mane doubled Liverpool's lead to put it in pole position to reach the Champions League final for a third time in five seasons.

Klopp struck a cautious note despite the one-sided nature of the first leg.

"Nothing has happened yet," he said. "We're playing a game and it's 2-0 at halftime. You have to be completely on alert, 100 percent in the right mood."

Klopp has built a formidable winning machine that looks even more complete than the team which won the Champions League in 2019, a year after also reaching the final and losing to Real Madrid under the German coach.

Yet the Reds have more than a seventh European Cup triumph, and second of Klopp's reign, in their sights.

They are chasing an unprecedented quadruple.

No English team has ever won all four major trophies in one season, not even Arsenal's 2004 'Invincibles 'or Manchester United's 1999 treble winners.

For Liverpool, who has already won this season's League Cup, that is the historic goal now.

It sits one point behind English Premier League leader Manchester City with five games left and faces Chelsea in the FA Cup final in May.

Needing a slip from City to take the EPL title, Liverpool doesn't have its destiny in its own hands, however it is playing well enough to keep dreaming.

'Best I've ever seen'

Winning a quadruple would establish Klopp's Reds as the greatest of all Liverpool's golden generations, better even than the 1988 vintage of John Barnes and Peter Beardsley and the late 1970s and early '80s crop of Kenny Dalglish and Graeme Souness.

Mirroring the transformation of the city's Albert Dock into a vibrant, urban hub, Klopp's team is building its own history from the storied foundations laid by its forefathers.

From murals of greats like Dalglish and Steven Gerrard to statues of Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley, the streets around Anfield are a living monument to Liverpool's past.

Towering high over the red-brick terraced houses of the Walton district, Anfield would be unrecognizable to fans who watched their first dominant era in the 1960s.

Back then, Shankly became a Liverpool icon as he led the Reds to sustained success after taking over a club languishing in the second tier.

But echoes from the Shankly era still reverberate to this day, with his ethos that Anfield must be a "bastion of invincibility" a core tenet of Klopp's regime.

Villarreal found it impossible to subdue this vibrant, relentless Liverpool in front of a 53,000 crowd that kept demanding more from the players.

It is a potent combination and Mark Lawrenson, a pillar of Liverpool's 1980s defense, believes this is already Klopp's finest squad.

"The reality is, they are in the best moment," Villarreal head coach Unai Emery said of Liverpool. "They are now the favorites to win this competition."

"There's massive expectancy on Liverpool. They're going so well, they're in a fantastic position. It's the best squad he's ever had so it's head down and get on with it," Lawrenson added.

Former Liverpool striker Michael Owen agrees, saying: "It's the best team I have ever seen in a red shirt. Villarreal must have come off that pitch wondering what hit them. The Liverpool pressing is relentless."

Klopp's team is hitting all the right notes, the only question now is whether it will feel fine with its trophy haul at the end of the season.

Agencies