'Are you kidding me?' - Jurgen Klopp on two opposition players who changed Liverpool history

No matter how many times Jurgen Klopp is forced to watch, the end result remains the same. And all the emotions of having first witnessed the incident when viewing nervously from his sofa at home come flooding back.

It's May 6 2019 and, with 20 minutes remaining, Manchester City appear to have exhausted ideas to score the goal that would beat Leicester City and elevate themselves above Klopp's Liverpool in the Premier League table with just one game remaining. Then Vincent Kompany decides to stroll forward and... well, you know the rest.

"From time to time I see Vinny’s screamer and think ‘Are you kidding me?’," says Klopp, physically grimacing. "Seconds before that goal I was thinking: ‘Come on Brendan (Rodgers), take (James) Maddison off, he’s tired’. He was five yards away and just had to move to block the shot.

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"I was lying on my sofa with my hands in my pockets and a second later I felt like I’d had a stroke. What can you do when that happens?"

City's 1-0 win ultimately meant that Liverpool, despite earning a then club-record 97 points, finished one adrift of Pep Guardiola's side the following weekend. And the demoralising strike was hardly ideal preparation for 24 hours later when the Reds faced the near impossible job of overturning a three-goal Champions League semi-final deficit against Barcelona. After such a season of promise, Klopp's men were poised to end it empty-handed.

Instead, the reaction to Kompany's goal set in motion a series of events that ended with Liverpool becoming the most successful team in the club's long and glorious history. First Barcelona were vanquished - Klopp's favourite night as Reds boss - and the Champions League lifted, before the following season Liverpool ended a 30-year wait for the championship and became world champions for the first time.

Defeats arguably more so than victories shaped Klopp's tenure, most notably the Champions League showpiece of 2018. They forged the resolve and determination to go again and make the final step. Those failures made subsequent successes all the sweeter.

"People always want to talk to me about leadership, stuff like this," says Klopp. "I never read a book about it so how can I talk about this? I know what I do and I can explain why I do it, but I’m not sure I would recommend it to all of you to do it like that

"But, if my career didn’t teach me how to deal with setbacks, then there is no career for that. And it goes for all of us. What can you do? There are obviously more important things in life than football but where can you really learn a couple of things in advanced age groups about how to deal with things?

"Why do people talk – and it is a big story – about us not winning the league in 2019 by a point? Why we didn’t win the Champions League in 2018 and the way we lost that game? Winning it the next year, going again, don’t win the league for a point but win it the year after. So this period is a complete comeback. A comeback over 70-something games, which is absolutely insane to be honest.

"For me it was like not getting promoted with Mainz by a point, not getting promoted by a goal. We could have given up but it is just not in my DNA. I suffer like crazy after these things, just not for long. That is true. It’s how I said after the last Champions League final we lost – I decided before that, if it doesn’t happen, I will not waste a lifetime on suffering. I can’t do that anymore."

Regardless of the events before, during and after the game outside the stadium and the controversial fall-out, that 2022 defeat to Real Madrid still rankles with many Liverpool supporters given the manner in which the Reds dominated but were ultimately beaten 1-0 by the masters of economy. And, two years on, Klopp is pragmatic in his assessment.

"We play that game and we shoot every three minutes on their goal but their keeper has 12 hands, and then they score that goal and we talk afterwards about the one mistake where we could have defended that goal better," he says. "Could they (Real) have defended all the situations where we had the finishes better? Oh, definitely. But nobody speaks about it.

"You have pundits going ‘He has to stay there!’. I hate that so much, not pundits in general, but it feels so often like you have personally offended them - ‘How can he do that? Look he’s in the wrong position!’. The other guys were in the wrong position 23 times and we didn’t punish it. That has nothing to do with their defending, that was that f****r Courtois (laughs). And that was it.

"I couldn’t go down that road again that night and feel like you usually feel after a defeat like that. We didn’t do anything wrong. We just have to accept the rule of the games, the one team that scores wins the game if you don’t score yourself."

Twice runners-up in the Champions League, twice denied the title by a point, and also beaten in a League Cup and Europa League final, the honours list could easily have looked very different under Klopp. But the departing Reds boss has no regrets over the rewards from his near nine-year tenure.

"We all know with a little bit better decisions here or there we were that close," he says. "Minutes, millimetres, inches decided things for us. So for me looking back that makes no difference, I know for people it makes a massive difference if I won more. If I win three (Premier League titles) I am definitely a successful manager, if I win one in nine years people can argue it.

"But I couldn’t care less. 364 days really enjoyable in these seasons when we had 90-odd points and were nearly there. Then in the one moment it is awful, horrible - the block at City, the handball of Rodri (at Everton in 2022 that wasn't given), so many little things where you thought, ‘oh my God’. The screamer of Vinny. That ball goes 999 of 1,000 everywhere in the stadium and for that night it looks like for them it is meant to be.

"Post against Real Madrid (in 2022). Ramos, was it a red card (in 2018)? I am not sure, but it was harsh. And for that season we arrived at the Champions League final with players coming back. Is that our fault? To win the Champions League you need your whole squad, actually. Adam Lallana came back from a long injury, Emre, it was the same for the Europa League final. Divock came back, Hendo didn’t even feature. That is something you cannot really influence.

"We had the Tottenham moment, the Madrid moment, we had other moments, we won the league, we won these cups, and I really think the two Chelsea finals in 2022 were two of the best games I ever witnessed – from a tactical point of view they were so good, but we were so good as well, completely spot on – we both missed chances, ‘How is it nil-nil?’, hit the crossbar and post.

"I enjoyed so many moments and it’s how I understand life – I want it but others want it as well, from time to time you get it and from time to time they get it. I’m at peace with it. If other people are not, I cannot change it anyway. But I don’t care really, as well. For me, it was super satisfying and successful but there is space for improvement, I know that. But I cannot change that anymore and it doesn’t hurt."