Liverpool should not be in the Europa League, claims Sparta Prague manager | Football

Jurgen Klopp’s side demolished Sparta with a 5-1 win in the first leg last week and followed that up with another sublime performance on Thursday evening to secure their place in Friday’s Europa League quarter-final draw.

Priske admitted his Sparta side had never played a team at the level of Liverpool and feels Klopp’s men should be competing in the Champions League.

‘We faced a world-class team,’ Priske said of Liverpool after Sparta’s defeat.

‘Big respect to Liverpool how they played these two legs, how they approached the games, put in the pure quality they have.

‘Of course, I and we are disappointed in the personal mistakes that we made, both in the first game and here in the first 20 minutes but we faced a world-class team here today again.

‘I think the most important thing for me to say, I hope you guys also and the Czech football fans at home that they acknowledge the level from Sparta to Liverpool is massive.

‘For sure, we knew that when we saw the draw it was going to be difficult, it was going to be tough. I felt we competed better in the first game but overall they were much, much better than us.

‘It must not take away the European campaign that we’ve had as a team and as a club, and I hope people realise this back home and appreciate the players for what they’ve done and not measure them on these two games.

‘As I said already, it’s a completely different level to something we’ve played against this season. We’ve played against good teams, Betis, Rangers, last qualification round against Galatasaray but Liverpool are a completely different level.

‘It’s a completely different level, we’ve never faced something like this, and maybe there will be some time until we do it again.

‘But Liverpool are a Champions League team and they should be in the Champions League, they’ll maybe be in the semi-finals, they’ll maybe be Premier League winners in two months.

‘We saw the individual quality, it’s a different level. Big, big respect to the players of Liverpool and the whole coaching staff, in some aspects it was nice to see.’

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