A secret friendly was key to Klopp's success against Tottenham
Everyone thought Klopp had studied his opponent in the Madrid final in fine detail, but he even organised a friendly against a team which were ordered to play like Tottenham.
The Portuguese paper 'A Bola' has revealed the news. Apparently, in the Marbella 'bunker' where the Reds stayed in the days prior to the final, a very peculiar friendly was played.
Jurgen Klopp had agreed with Benfica to play a friendly against their B team, but under one condition. The Benfica B team had to play how Tottenham do by imitating their defensive and attacking routines.
"We replicated their normal 4-3-2-1 formation and Vinicius played like Eriksen, Bernardo acted like Dele Alli and Jose Gomes was Harry Kane," Renato Paiva, the Benfica B coach revealed to the paper.
Liverpool won that game 3-0 thanks to goals from Mane, Origi and Oxlade-Chamberlain. And funnily enough, Mane's goal was right at the start of the game in a very similar move which ended up being a penalty to Liverpool and a goal for Salah.