Revisiting Jurgen Klopp’s all 6 previous cup final defeats
Just over 24 hours from now, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur will contest the Madrid showpiece for the Big Ol' Ears in an enticing all-English final.
And as restless as we get ahead of the highly anticipated kickoff, a certain Jurgen Klopp is getting more jitters and the screaming abdabs than anyone of us. The German gaffer is into the eighth major final of his career but has lost each of the last six, including two in this particular competition.
His teams seem to hit a glass ceiling when glory is within touching distance, and this unwanted tendency is exactly what might be perturbing him a day before another important final.
Let's take a trip down the memory lane and revisit all the six consecutive finals that Klopp has lost since 2013:
#6 Borussia Dortmund 1-2 Bayern Munich (UEFA Champions League final, 2013)
Jurgen Klopp inherited a mediocre, mid-table teetering Borussia Dortmund outfit in 2008 and turned them into an all-conquering juggernaut, winning successive Bundesliga titles in 2010 and 2011 as well as the German Cup in the latter to cap off a historic cup double.
So when Der BVB reached the Champions League final in 2013 against all the odds, it was supposed to be the apotheosis of the wonderful transformation caused by Klopp’s tutelage.
Instead, that Wembley showpiece was the harbinger of a horrific run in the finals.
In the all-German final, Dortmund showed stones against a formidable Bayern Munich side determined to exorcise the ghosts of the 2010 and 2012 defeats. And it was Arjen Robben who sprung out of the blue and netted the winner in the 89th minute as the Bavarians eventually clinched treble glory.
"It was a really hard season for us and I saw that from 75 minutes on," Klopp said afterwards. "We deserved to be in the final. That is not the most important thing, but it is important."