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I Don’t Know How My Players Did It – Klopp Confesses
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp said he was “overwhelmed” and saw his players in tears after they completed the biggest Champions League semi-final comeback to beat Barcelona 4-3 on aggregate.
The Reds lost the first leg 3-0 but doubles from GeorginioWijnaldum and DivockOrigi at Anfield took them into a final against Ajax or Tottenham.
“If I have to describe this club then it’s a big heart and tonight it was pounding like crazy,” he said.
“You could hear it all over the world.”
Klopp was almost giddy in his BT Sport interview, checking it was past the watershed before swearing and saying he was happy to pay a fine.
“The whole game was too much,” he said. “Winning is difficult but with a clean sheet, I don’t know how they did it.”
“It means so much to all of us. There are more important things in the world. But creating this emotional atmosphere together is so special. It’s all about the players.
“The mix of potential and unbelievable heart is just a mix I never saw before. It shows what’s possible in football. It’s so nice.”
It is the first time since 1986 – when Barcelona knocked out Gothenburg in the old European Cup – that a team have recovered a three-goal first-leg deficit to win a semi-final in this competition.
“I said to the boys before ‘I don’t think it’s possible but because it’s you I think we have a chance’ – they are really mentality giants. It’s unbelievable,” Klopp added.
“After the season we played, the games we had, the injuries we had now in this moment, if you go out there and ask who bet a penny on us, I don’t think you would find a lot of people.
“We know this club is the mix of atmosphere, emotion, desire and football quality. Cut off one and it doesn’t work.”
Klopp won two Bundesliga titles and a German Cup with Borussia Dortmund but since 2012 has lost two Champions League finals, one Europa League final, two German Cups and a Carabao Cup final.
“I know what people say about me and losing finals, that’s absolutely right,” said Klopp, who guided the five-time European champions to last season’s final, which they lost to Real Madrid. “But it’s the fourth final in that time as well we are in, that’s pretty special already.
“Last year we really felt we have to go back – we cannot let it stand like this, that’s not possible. Now we get another chance and we will go for that, of course.
“I’m not sure if it will happen again because it’s so special. When I saw the boys after the game and saw the tears in their eyes, that’s football. This club touches you like crazy, it’s like you feel much more than others in these moments.”
Wijnaldum said his team had showed “everything is possible in football”.
The midfielder replaced the injured Andy Robertson at half-time and scored twice, with Origi getting the winner.
“After the game in Spain we were confident we could score four and win 4-0,” he said.
“People outside doubted us. They thought we couldn’t do it. But once again we showed everything is possible in football.
“I was really angry that the manager put me on the bench. I just tried to help my team, I’m happy I could do that with two goals.”
The final is in Madrid on 1 June and will be the first since 2013 without a Spanish side involved – that after a run of seven finalists from that country in the past five seasons.
“Who’s going to the final? We are,” said Liverpool left-back Robertson, when asked about a running battle he had with former Reds striker Luis Suarez, whose kick injured the Scot and led to his half-time substitution. “That’s all that matters. Gini went on [for me] and scored two. I don’t care right now.”
Robertson also said this unlikely victory can help his side as they attempt to win the Premier League title on Sunday. They need to beat Wolves and hope leaders Manchester City drop points at Brighton to win their first league title since 1990.
“Fingers crossed,” he said. “We go to Sunday full of energy. It’s out of our hands but we’ve seen stranger things happen. Especially tonight.”
Abia State Governor, Dr. Alex Otti, on Sunday paid a solidarity visit to the Leader of the Indigenous Peoples Of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, at the Sokoto Correctional Centre, Sokoto State, where he was to begin serving his life sentence.
Governor Otti, according to a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr Ferdinand Ekeoma, and published on social media, encouraged Kanu, during a meeting held behind closed doors, to remain strong, assuring that the engagements he started over two years ago, which the IPOB leader has been aware of, have been intensified in spite of what happened.
The Governor enjoined Kanu to remain calm, but strong, assuring that the issue will be resolved administratively and that he will regain his freedom.
Governor Otti expressed joy that the Sultan of Sokoto is on the same page with him on the need for Kanu’s freedom and de-escalation of tension, and informed Kanu that the Sultan of Sokoto had on a lighter note told him that Kanu is now his subject and he was going to turbane him, an information that got the IPOB Leader laughing loudly.
Responding, Mazi Kanu, who was beaming with smiles and in high spirits, thanked Governor Otti for the visit, and stated that he wasn’t surprised that the Governor quickly came visiting, because he had done the same thing in the past.
He told the Governor that he is very proud of his giant strides in Abia based on the feedbacks he gets from home about the state since he assumed office, a feat he said is replicating what Late Dee Sam Mbakwe did as Governor of Old Imo State, which has kept him permanently immortalised, and called on the Governor to continue to serve the people diligently.
The IPOB leader told Governor Otti that he is only interested in good governance and anything that could better the lot of the people, and prayed God to continue to be with the Governor and his team as they serve the people of the state.
Governor Otti was accompanied on the visit by the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Ikechukwu Uwanna, SAN, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Media and Publicity, Ferdinand Ekeoma, and some top Sokoto State government officials, including Commissioners and advisers.
Also present during the visit was Kanu’s younger brother, Prince Emmanuel Kanu.
Cameroonian opposition figure, Anicet Ekan, on Monday, died in detention in Yaounde, the vice president of his party told AFP.
“Anicet Ekane died this morning in Yaounde, where he had been transferred after his arrest at the end of October in Douala,” Valentin Dongmo of the African Movement for the New Independence of Cameroon (Manidem) party said.
The exact circumstances of the 74-year-old’s death remain unclear.
The left-wing, nationalist politician was arrested in Douala on October 24, on the eve of the publication of presidential election results that returned 92-year-old Paula Biya to power for an eighth mandate.
Ekane was close to fellow opposition figure Issa Tchiroma Bakary, who contested Biya’s 43-year grip on power in the October 12 election.
“Anicet Ekane was arrested in Douala and then transferred to Yaounde, where he was held at the State Defence Secretariat (SED). It was there that his health began to deteriorate,” according to Dongmo.
“We repeatedly alerted the authorities, including the military court administration, requesting that Anicet Ekane be transferred to a hospital with the appropriate facilities for better care, but our requests did not receive a favourable response,” he said.
Manidem had denounced the “arbitrary” arrests aiming to “intimidate” Cameroonians.
Born in Douala in 1951, Ekane joined the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon (UPC) party in 1973 — which he then quit to create Manidem in 1995.
In February 1990, he and other members of the Yondo Black group were arrested. He was condemned in a military trial before being pardoned several months later.
Ekane led Manidem for several years and ran as its presidential candidate in 2004 and 2011.
His death has triggered a groundswell of reactions on social media.
AFP
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Pastor Bakare Advises Tinubu to Apologize to Traumatized Communities, Accept Responsibility for Failure
The Lead Pastor of the Citadel Global Community Church, Tunde Bakare, has urged President Bola Tinubu to publicly apologize to communities devastated by insecurity.
Bakare made the call on Sunday during his State of the Nation Address in Lagos, saying the gesture would mark a commitment to justice and national healing.
The cleric acknowledged that the president had taken initial steps to address the crisis but insisted that deeper action is required to restore confidence.
He said the government must first accept responsibility for decades of failure to protect citizens from terrorism, banditry and other violent crimes.
Bakare said the plan should include a Victims and Survivors Register, a national apology to affected communities after three months, and midterm compensation, stressing that accountability is crucial to restoring public trust and ending the cycle of violence.
