11 May 2023 , 18:55
544
0
Trent Alexander-Arnold has revealed that Liverpool were not afraid of Tottenham heading into the 2019 Champions League final.
The two sides played out an all-Premier League affair in the showpiece event at the Wanda Metropolitano. It was the Reds who came out on top, with a second minute penalty from Mohamed Salah and Divock Origi's second-half strike securing the win.
It meant that Jurgen Klopp's side lifted the European Cup for the fifth time in the club's history, having been runners-up to Real Madrid in 2018. Klopp's men had finished a mammoth 26 points ahead of Spurs in that season's Premier League table.
The Reds were runners up to Manchester City, losing just one league game all campaign to finish second. Tottenham meanwhile squeezed into fourth place, racking up 71 points despite losing 13 games.
Both teams came into the game high on confidence having claimed comeback wins over Barcelona and Ajax in the semi-finals. But despite Spurs' miraculous win over the Dutch giants, Alexander-Arnold has now revealed that Liverpool were not worried about their opponents.
Chelsea complete record-breaking Enzo Fernandez transfer after deadline day rush
"It just felt right, if I'm honest. Like, 100 per cent we knew, we knew they were never going to beat us. There was no way. There was not really any doubt amongst us," the Liverpool right-back told LadBible.
HAVE YOUR SAY! Where will Liverpool finish in the Premier League this season? Comment below.
Alexander-Arnold helped Liverpool win the Champions League (Getty Images)"It wasn't like we were screaming from the rooftops saying 'we've won'. It was if we do our jobs proper, if we all do our jobs, there's no way they'll beat us. We knew we were the much better team.
"Like I said, we knew if we played well, we'd win. The only way we won't win is if we played bad and they played outstanding. So it just about making sure that we played well."
That belief turned out to be correct, with Liverpool taking an early lead through Salah's penalty. They went on to lift the trophy, with Alexander-Arnold also revealing the squad had discussed the scenario of going ahead early before the game.
"We had a players' meeting I want to say maybe on the Thursday, but the only final we'd been in was the Champions League final the year before, which was a strange one in how they handled winning the game," he added.
"We spoke about how to handle different game scenarios and the first thing we spoke about was what would we do if we took an early lead. Easiest thing to do on such a big occasion is you get an early lead and you think you need to protect it.
"You sit back and you invite pressure. We said to each other 'we can't do that because that's not the way we play'. We just played the game we needed to play, there was nothing too special about it, we defended well and done what we needed to do to win."