Liverpool vs Stoke: Jürgen Klopp looks ahead to Wembley despite 2015 semi-final heartache

Klopp's last visit to Wembley was 2013 Champions League final

(Getty)

For Jürgen Klopp, life is all about accentuating the positives, so the German sees only the upside of being 90 minutes away from a major final with Liverpool because “in England, we won’t have to play Bayern Munich if we get there”.

Klopp’s last visit to Wembley resulted in his Borussia Dortmund team losing the 2013 Champions League final to Bayern. Yet, after he saw his Liverpool side secure a 1-0 first-leg lead against Stoke City in the Capital One Cup semi-final earlier this month, anything but a defeat at Anfield tonight will ensure that the red half of Merseyside can plan for the final on 28 February, with Everton aiming to overcome Manchester City tomorrow, potentially to face their neighbours next month.

Liverpool go into tonight’s second leg having been eliminated at the semi-final stage of both domestic cups last season, against Chelsea and Aston Villa. However, with Klopp determined to banish any negative thoughts, the manager insists that last year’s failure will not even be discussed with his players.

“Everything has changed here since last season,” Klopp said. “If you want to solve problems, you can take the problem, talk about it, find solutions for it and, in the end, you can find yourself facing the same problem.

“The other option is that you ignore it completely and say, ‘It was only one time’, or in this case two times. Or you prepare yourself for a semi-final and that’s what we want to do.

“Don’t think too much about the past. It doesn’t help to think about these things.

“Last year, I don’t know why, but some things went wrong in the semi-finals and the only thing that stays in the mind is that we lost,” Klopp added.

“This is a different team, different situation, different manager, different opponent. It wasn’t Stoke last season, it was Chelsea, so it’s different and we don’t need to think about that.

“To accept a situation is the biggest mistake you can make in sport. Sometimes you have to respect and accept something, but then you have to react in the right way. That is what you have to learn.”

Liverpool go into the game with Jon Flanagan on standby to replace Nathaniel Clyne at right-back if the England defender fails to overcome a knock in time, but Klopp is set to retain Kolo Touré and Mamadou Sakho at centre-half, despite Dejan Lovren’s return to training following a hamstring strain.

Shakhtar are not budging on their valuation of Alex Teixeira (Getty Images)

Klopp’s hopes of bolstering his squad with the signing of the Shakhtar Donetsk forward Alex Teixeira appear to be diminishing, however, with the Ukrainian club refusing to lower their valuation of the Brazilian. Teixeira is keen to move to Anfield, but Shakhtar, backed by the billionaire Rinat Akhmetov, believe they can secure £50m for the player, whose £38m escape clause applies only if triggered by a club competing in the Champions League.

While efforts will continue to be made to sign Teixeira ahead of next Monday’s 11pm transfer deadline, Klopp said that the immediate objective is to secure a “boring” victory against Stoke to progress to Wembley and open up the prospect of derby against Everton in the final.

“Boring is not too cool, but 1-0 would be a great result,” Klopp said “We had it at Stoke, so we have the perfect situation for the second leg of a semi-final – a lead away from home – and now we can use the power of LFC to go to the final.

“Going to Wembley is the best thing you can do in football. Who the opponent is at this moment is not the biggest issue, but if it is Everton we want to beat them. If it is Man City we want to beat them.

“First of all we have to beat Stoke and then we can talk about the rest.”