Liverpool hand Klopp a final win as much-loved manager bows out

Liverpool — Liverpool delivered much-loved manager Juergen Klopp a victory in his final game with the team on Sunday, a 2-0 win over 10-man Wolverhampton Wanderers at Anfield in an emotional Premier League season finale.

Alexis Mac Allister and Jarell Quansah scored on a day that did not affect the Reds’ third-placed finish in the table but one that Liverpool fans had been dreading since the 56-year-old German manager announced in late January that he would leave the club at season’s end after almost nine years at the helm.

Klopp’s men, who were on course to give their manager a fairy-tale ending before a string of bad results last month derailed their title challenge, finished the season on 82 points, nine behind winners Manchester City and seven behind third-placed Arsenal.

“I’ve got no words, it’s a very emotional day,” Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk — fighting back tears — told Sky Sports. “It was always going to be a tough afternoon. We wanted to make sure that we do our job and then we can all be very emotional after the game.

“[Klopp] deserves every bit of love that he’s getting.”

Wolves were reduced to 10 men in the 28th minute when Nelson Semedo was sent off for his ugly tackle on Mac Allister. Six minutes later, the Argentine midfielder headed home Harvey Elliott’s curling cross, bringing Klopp to his feet with a huge smile. Quansah doubled Liverpool’s lead in the 40th minute when he poked in Liverpool talisman Mohamed Salah’s shot.

Klopp bade farewell to the Anfield faithful — including owners John Henry and Tom Werner, who flew in from Boston for the occasion — having won 305 matches, including penalty shoot-outs, with the Reds.

A crowd more than a dozen deep and bathed in red smoke squeezed shoulder to shoulder along the road leading into Anfield on Sunday to welcome the team busses as they pulled in pregame.

If Liverpool’s pre-game singing of You’ll Never Walk Alone — the song by 1960s Liverpool band Gerry and the Pacemakers that became the club anthem — raises goosebumps in most games, the Anfield crowd sang at the top of their lungs on Sunday while Klopp raised a hand to his heart.

“This morning I woke up and I was completely in game mode,” Klopp told Sky Sports before kickoff. “We had a normal team meeting and the 60,000 here and the few million watching deserve that. People call it the last dance, so let’s dance!”

Klopp won seven trophies since joining the club in 2015, including the Champions League in 2019 and a first English League title in three decades in 2020. He also won the Club World Cup, FA Cup, League Cup twice and Uefa Super Cup, as well as the Community Shield.

Reuters