Jürgen Klopp has said Roberto Firmino is fit and ready for Saturday’s Champions League final although refused to confirm the influential Liverpool striker would start against Tottenham.
Firmino has missed Liverpool’s last three matches with a groin muscle injury and trained only occasionally with the full squad since rejoining the group in Marbella last week. Klopp had said the Brazil international would return to full training on Wednesday but that plan was delayed until Thursday as the striker continued an individual training programme.
The 27-year-old, who has played only 12 minutes of competitive football since 21 April, completed Liverpool’s training session at Wanda Metropolitano on Friday. Divock Origi is favourite to start against Spurs should Klopp decide Firmino is too much of a risk for European football’s showpiece occasion.
“Yes, he is ready,” the Liverpool manager said of Firmino. “Whether he will start? I thought I’d keep a few question marks open. He’s fit, he’s here. Unless anything happens in the training session later he should be fine.”
Klopp was also asked at his pre-final press conference in Madrid whether he believed in unlucky managers, having lost his last six cup finals – three with Liverpool and three with Borussia Dortmund. “My career so far is not unlucky,” he replied.
“My missus says it all the time: ‘When is the last game of the season?’ Because since 2012, and apart from 2017, every year my team has been in a final. I am probably the world record holder in winning semi-finals. I could write a book about that but no one would buy it. I don’t sit here and think about myself and think ‘loser’. And, if we won tomorrow, I would not sit here thinking ‘winner’.
“We want to win it with all we have. They can be lucky moments and in my two Champions League finals, I was never on the lucky side. You have to work for it and so we try again. It is not an unlucky career and it’s not over, I still have a few years. It could have been better, it could have been worse. I’m fine.”
