We all know that Mauricio Pochettino, a “baby coach,” will screw up this FC semifinal once more, but I still feel bad for the supporters. The one thing Pochettino needs to do to beat Man City this season, according to Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, is revealed.
On Sunday, in a second major cup final, Jürgen Klopp and Mauricio Pochettino will face off as managers for the fourteenth time.
The two have often been in opposite dugouts—from Klopp’s first game as Liverpool’s manager to a Champions League showpiece and now Pochettino’s new team.
We look back at their shared history thus far ahead of the Reds and Chelsea’s most recent matchup in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley.
As previously stated, Klopp’s time at Anfield started with a match against Tottenham Hotspur manager Fernando Pochettino that October 15, 2015.
The clubs drew their first three meetings, with a 0-0 deadlock at White Hart Lane marking the first of three consecutive draws. League matches in April and August 2016 ended in 1-1 draws.
In October of that year, Klopp recorded the first head-to-head victory, which occurred in the League Cup. Under the Anfield lights, Daniel Sturridge scored twice as the Reds prevailed 2-1 in the fourth-round match.
And they pulled off the same ruse when Spurs visited L4 in the top flight later that season, winning 2-0 thanks to two goals from Sadio Mane in the first three minutes of the game.
Pochettino prevailed in their Premier League matchups in 2017–18, causing one of Klopp’s worst moments at Liverpool with a 4-1 victory at home at Wembley and securing a point in a tense match on Merseyside with a 2-2 draw.
Since then, though, the tide has decisively turned back in Klopp’s favor.
Prior to a genuinely historic night in Madrid in June 2019, the Reds defeated Pochettino’s Spurs 2-1 in both of their top-flight matches with three victories in a row in 2018–19.
Liverpool won their sixth European Cup after defeating the Londoners 2-0 in the Champions League final thanks to a penalty kick from Mohamed Salah and a last-second swipe of Divock Origi’s left boot.
In October of that year, Klopp’s team won another 2-1 in the league, and Pochettino’s exit from the Spurs bench came first.
When the Argentinean was named Chelsea’s manager last summer, he returned to English football following a stint with Paris Saint-Germain in France.
On the first day of the current Premier League season, the Reds were sent to Stamford Bridge by the fixture computer, which quickly threw the two managers into a new match, which ended in a 1-1 draw.
When they played each other again less than a month ago, the home team prevailed 4-1 at Anfield thanks to goals from Diogo Jota, Conor Bradley, Dominik Szoboszlai, and Luis Diaz. Klopp was ecstatic.
“That was actually quite… It was quite similar to how he described his love of football. “And then how does everyone see you against a good opponent?”
Hopefully, Klopp will make a similar statement following Sunday’s final whistle at Wembley.
