Did Klopp blame coronavirus for CL exit?

From the comfort of his own home, in a relaxed atmosphere and drinking what could be a cup of tea, Jurgen Klopp gave an interview to Liverpool's official media channels. The coach is in his own home in lockdown because of the coronavirus and talked about several topics including the Champions League elimination.

Klopp believes that the spreading of the pandemic affected his team's preparation. The coach had already expressed anger when he was asked about the coronavirus in a press conference. In the Atletico Madrid match, he also seemed to get angry at some fans who tried to high five him.

"It is two weeks ago, but it feels like it is ages ago that we played Atletico. I remember, we all knew about the situation with coronavirus around the world but we were still ‘in our tunnel’, if you want;" the German said. 

"We played the Bournemouth game on Saturday, we won it, then Sunday City lost, so the information for us was ‘two wins to go’. But then on Monday morning, I woke up and heard about the situation in Madrid, that they would close the schools and universities from Wednesday, so it was really strange to prepare for that game, to be honest," Klopp continued.

"I usually don’t struggle with things around me, I can build barriers right and left when I prepare for a game, but in that moment it was really difficult," he explained. Atletico ended up fighting back in extra-time to knock the European champions out of the competition.

Klopp hopes normality resumes as soon as possible, but he is cautious. "Nobody knew exactly – and nobody knows exactly – how it will go on, so the only way we could do it was to organise it as good as possible for the boys and make sure everything is sorted as much as we can sort it in our little space, in the little area where we are responsible, really. That’s what we did in a very short time, then we sent the boys home, went home ourselves and here we are still," he told the club's website. 

Klopp said that he cried when he saw the health workers chant 'You'll Never Walk Alone". "I was sent a video of people in the hospital just outside the intensive care area and when they started singing You’ll Never Walk Alone I started crying immediately. It’s unbelievable. But it shows everything, these people not only work but they have such a good spirit. They are used to helping other people, we need to get used to it because usually we have our own problems and stuff," he concluded.