Jurgen Klopp full of praise for Unai Emery’s work with Aston Villa

Klopp, who is stepping down at Anfield at the end of the season, is full of praise for the job Emery had done since his arrival at Villa Park.

Villa suffered major disappointment on Thursday when they missed the chance to reach the Europa Conference League final following defeat to Olympiacos. But that makes Klopp wary ahead of their encounter.

“It’s the last home game of the season of Aston Villa, they want to have a good last home game because they play an incredible season,” he said. “This year Conference League, next year Champions League – Unai (Emery) is doing an incredible job there and is one of the best we have in the business. Wherever he was he had success.

“We all know how important it is for a club to qualify for the Champions League, how difficult it is to do that.”

Klopp has mixed feelings about Villa Park. The ground witnessed a crucial moment in their title-winning season when Andy Robertson and Sadio Mane scored in the final three minutes to snatch a 2-1 win in November 2018 which extended their unbeaten start to that campaign and felt hugely significant.

However, the following season they returned as champions and were incredibly thumped 7-2.

Asked about his memories of Villa Park Klopp said: “You talk about that game (the 2-1 win). We had another night at Aston Villa...

“True, it was a really special game when we won 2-1. At half-time we had a little situation in the dressing room – and then we turned the game around, which was really special.”