James Milner reveals what Jurgen Klopp said to Liverpool at half-time in comeback win against Dortmund

Liverpool’s James Milner has said in that the extraordinary comeback against Borussia Dortmund can imbue the side with the belief that “if we can beat them we can beat anyone” and be the catalyst for the return of silverware to Anfield.

Milner provided testament to manage Jurgen Klopp’s extraordinary powers of motivation at half time – which included the German reminding the players what Liverpool had achieved at Istanbul in 2005 – and he said that the club could be on the brink of the same breakthrough he experienced at Manchester City, where one piece of silverware brought much more

“It was the same when I was at City and we managed to win that first piece of silverware,” Milner said, as he anticipated a semi final draw which positions Liverpool with Sevilla, Villarreal and Shakhtar Donetsk. “You get that belief and hunger and that feeling that hang on we can go again. Hopefully this result will kick us on to do that and hopefully we can now go on to win some silverware.”

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Milner said the secret of Klopp’s power of motivation at half-time, when Liverpool tailed 2-0 and required three goals to progress, was his calmness.

“I think it was the perfect atmosphere created at half time to be honest,” he said. “We know we weren’t in a great position we know we didn’t start the game brilliantly, but we weren’t really bad. It would have been easy for him to come in effing and blinding but he didn’t. He was like: ‘let’s go for it. It is going to be difficult.’ And reminded us of a situation where club has come through a similar situation before.

“He said we are not playing too badly. It is a long way back but we have nothing to lose. We have lost the first half, but you have nothing to lose, go out and do it. He obviously mentioned a certain night in Istanbul and said there have been other great nights in this club’s history from a similar position so go out and see what happens.”

Self-belief has not easy to come by despite Klopp’s ability to foster confidence. “[This result] will do a lot,” Milner said. “I have said at times this year that I don’t think there is that belief there and the boys believe how good they are. It is a young team and sometimes we struggle for consistency.”

For the 30-year-old, the assist for Dejan Lovren’s winner was reward for a fine though uncelebrated contribution these past six months, in which has been moved around repeatedly by the manager. He has provided 12 assists now this season.

“That has always been a strength of mine, creating goals over the years,” he said. “A lot of people see me as a runner, but I feel creating goals is one of my qualities and hopefully I can keep doing it.” As if evidence were needed of hi unheralded Milner – wth his workmanlike qualities – can be, he had been audible criticised for his crossing moments before supplying for Lovren.

“The first few went where they were meant to and there was no one there and the next few didn’t,” he said. “It happens. I was delighted Studge [Daniel Sturridge] held it up well. The hardest part was running from the half way line to be honest - I was pretty tired at that point.

“The only one that rivals [this one] was Bayern Munich away with City a few years ago when we were 2-0 down and managed to come back and win 3-2. We famously didn’t know we needed one more to go through and it ended in a disaster! But here, the atmosphere from driving in, the bus, the fans on the street, to come down from 2-0 down was amazing. The fans deserved it.”