Jurgen Klopp expecting Man City to remain 'as calm as ice' in crunch clash

Jurgen Klopp does not believe Manchester City will be impacted by pressure when they face his Liverpool side on Sunday.

With City ahead of Liverpool by just one point, many have tipped Sunday's game to decide the destiny of the Premier League title.

It's quite obviously a huge game, but according to Klopp, City won't see it as anything other than just an ordinary match.

“I know it was 14 points but we had two games in hand, one was Leicester and the other Arsenal. Would I [feel pressure if the roles were reversed]? I don’t know. I’m not sure if I’ve ever been 14 ahead and then all of a sudden only one," Klopp began.

“I wouldn’t imagine they will feel more under pressure. It’s more like – focus on yourself knowing about the situation, looking at the form you are in and that is all OK. It’s not like I think: ‘Ah, they’re under more pressure than us.’ They play at home, they are calm as ice in most of the games they play and we have to be as well.

“It’s an important game, a very important game, but it’s how we realised in the beginning: there is a season after this game and these games are as important as the others.

“Our programme is insane. We play City, Benfica, City, United and Everton. They will all hope if we win one of the City games that we celebrate for three or four days but we will not. For us it is very exciting, very interesting and I’m really looking forward to it but it is business as usual as well. It’s just a big game, which we had now since we started our chase properly. All the games were finals and this is no different.”

Not only are City one point ahead of Liverpool this season, but over the past 144 Premier League games, City have picked up one point more - 338, compared to Liverpool's 337.

“I’m surprised about the numbers to be honest. It’s massive," Klopp continued. "They wouldn’t have the points they have if we weren’t there and it’s the same the other way around. We obviously pushed each other properly, that’s the truth.

"If somebody would have asked me four years ago: ‘Do you think that’s possible and are you that close?’ I would have said: ‘Not really.’ I know how people see us and them.

“Man City is considered the best football team in the world and they got one point more than us – what does that say? I think as well they are the best football team in the world but they have only one point more than us in this time.

“So obviously we did something right. I’m happy about that but it would be better if we had 20 points more in that period, then we would have one more title or won more silverware. But it’s all fine how it is. That’s the basis we created, let’s go from there.”