Jurgen Klopp: Liverpool to give Crystal Palace 'all we have' as Manchester City Champions League tie looms

Eleanor Crooks30 March 2018

Jurgen Klopp insists Liverpool's Premier League trip to Crystal Palace on Saturday is of equal importance to the Champions League quarter-final against Manchester City that follows four days later.

With the biggest two games of Klopp's reign at Anfield coming up over the next fortnight, the German could be forgiven for having at least one eye on the tie, but he insists that is not yet the case.

He said: "It will be very important then but not at the moment. There's no balance (to be struck), we play Crystal Palace with all we have, with all intensity, with all concentration.

"For a player or a manager of Liverpool, everything is about qualification for the Champions League and both games are about qualification for the Champions League. One is for next year and one is for this year, that's the only difference, they have the same importance."

Liverpool have a seven-point cushion over Chelsea in the race for the top four while Palace halted a poor run of results that had seen them slip back into the relegation zone by beating Huddersfield last time out.

Palace's difficult run saw them lose narrowly to Tottenham, Manchester United - where they led 2-0 - and Chelsea, and Klopp has been impressed by their progress under manager Roy Hodgson.

He said: "I saw the full 95 minutes against Manchester United and other games as well. Only Arsenal were quite comfortable.

"They had a lot of key players out and I think we all agree if they had been all together constantly on the pitch and a little bit of luck, they would be in another position.

"They are in good shape, even when they lost a few games, you can see Roy is doing a fantastic job there. They fight for the league, we fight for the Champions League, and hopefully everybody can see that we fight for the Champions League."

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