KEIR RADNEDGE in MADRID: Jurgen Klopp believes his Liverpool team can profit against Tottenham Hotspur from the learning curve they have experienced since last year’s Champions League defeat to Real Madrid.

Klopp’s men lost 3-1 in Kiev in what was his sixth successive defeat in a final. But, in a pre-final press conference at Atletico Madrid’s Estadio Metropolitano, he focused entirely on the positive aspects of his record and a team who ended the Premier League season as runners-up with a remarkable 97 points.

He said: “If I had been the reason for losing six finals in a row we would have a problem but I can’t accept that. Last year we learned nothing from the final because they were three strange goals. But we have learned a lot in the time we have been together since then.

“We are a completely different side from last year. The final was like a starting point for the next steps. That was how we wanted to use it.

“Now we are more mature. We are older. We have players like Trent Alexander-Arnold who now has 50 more games in his legs. Last year it was not that we had no chance but we had surprised ourselves to be in the final.”

The message was clear: this time around Liverpool knew they were in the final on merit which was the reason they were confident about making amends for Kiev.

Klopp emphasised the point by referring back to his own history in finals saying: “If I thought it was all about me, if I saw myself as a loser, we would have a problem but I don’t see it like this. We are here because we want to win. As for things that happened in the past, we won a lot of games so there can be moments that are lucky and unlucky.

“If you work for it you have it, from time to time.”

As for his starting line-up, Klopp was say only that Roberto Firmino was “ready and fit” . . . if selected.

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