Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp staggered by ‘absolutely insane’ Champions League stat | Football | Sport

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp feels it is “absolutely insane” that his side finished their group on 15 points following a 2-0 win over Napoli on Tuesday evening. The Reds faced a tall order to finish top of their group heading into the match against Napoli, needing to beat the Italian side by four goals.

Klopp named a strong starting line-up to try and make that happen but it wasn’t to be despite late goals from Mohamed Salah and Darwin Nunez. It looked as though Liverpool would face a difficult Champions League group stage when they were thrashed 4-1 by Napoli in their opening European match back at the start of September.

But the Reds went on to win five games on the bounce to finish on 15 points and can now look forward to the last-16 draw next Monday. It was a far better display from Klopp side than the one that turned up against Leeds at the weekend.

Klopp was delighted to see his side show some determination to put that defeat against Leeds behind them and hand Napoli their first loss of the season. But the Liverpool boss was equally gobsmacked at his side ending the Champions League group stage dropping just three points in six matches.

Finishing on 15 points in any other group bar Bayern Munich’s would have seen Liverpool finish top. There are just four groups Liverpool can draw teams from in next week’s last-16 draw after they finished second.

UEFA rules stipulate that teams from the same domestic league can’t be drawn against each other, meaning Liverpool can’t face Tottenham, Chelsea or Manchester City and the obviously can’t face Napoli in the next phase either.

Bayern and Porto have already secured top spot in their groups, but Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain still have work to do on Wednesday. RB Leipzig still have a chance at stealing top spot from Real in Group F while Benfica can still overtake PSG.