Jurgen Klopp believes Liverpool's mood is now "completely different" as they prepare to welcome Manchester City to Anfield on Sunday on the back of a 7-1 win at Rangers.
After underwhelming for much of the season so far, the Reds' second-half performance at Ibrox saw them score six times to record a convincing Group A win that puts them on the cusp of the last 16 in the Champions League once more.
After going in 1-1 at half time after Roberto Firmino had cancelled out Scott Arfield's opener, the Reds looked a much slicker unit after the restart as they scored six times. Firmino made it 2-1 before Darwin Nunez scored with his last touch of the game.
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Mohamed Salah struck the quickest hat-trick in Champions League history at six minutes and 12 seconds as a substitute before Harvey Elliott made it 7-1 late on.
Klopp has admitted several times this term that confidence has been low within the Liverpool camp but he claimed the thumping win in Glasgow could have a transformative impact on the season as a whole ahead of Sunday's showdown with City, a team he labelled as the best in the world.
"It changes the mood, definitely," Klopp said. "It is completely different. We usually drink a beer after away games, but it is that long [since we won away] that I will probably be drunk after one!
"Yes, it changed the mood. That is good but we all know who we are welcoming on Sunday and this will be a different game. But it’s better to go into the game feeling like we do tonight!
"We will see, I am always ready for a change in the right direction, but we will see. We don’t have to make a big thing of it but the best football team in the world right now is coming to Anfield on Sunday. We will see what we can do.
"It’s not that we come with a big mouth and say ‘we are waiting’, not at all. It was for us, for different reasons, incredibly important. Yes 7-1 is a freak result, we know that, but we had that years ago. Now we have to recover, which is important. The changes were good tonight because we could do it but Diogo Jota didn’t start because I got a call this morning that he feels a thing with his muscle, he can play but should not play too long, so my decision was do I start him for 60 minutes or do I bring him for 20? It was the right thing to do, obviously.
"Hendo (Jordan Henderson) has played a lot, Darwin has played a lot now after not playing much. These things are all in your mind. The first 11 were really good but the changes gave us the next step and that was very pleasing. That was good but that is it. Now we recover and prepare for the next game.
"I really think the first half prepared the second half because it was really intense to defend us. It’s difficult. When we are on it we can be a really good football team. Unfortunately we were not always this season.
"The second half is the result of the first half. We really kept them moving, and it was difficult. Obviously they had to change a centre half, that was not helpful. Then a midfielder. But that shows how intense the game was. But if he [Goldson] doesn’t make that tackle then Darwin was through, so it was good defending and he has to put everything in.
"There were a lot of moments like this in the first half, and that’s why we had to keep going. In the end you have to bring the ball over the line. That is the most difficult thing in football. And all the goals we scored were exceptional.
"The cross from Joey Gomez. The set-up from Bobby (Firmino) for Darwin. Mo Salah came on and is on fire and interprets the position really well, in the right area. Then Harvey, when Diogo could have scored already. It is a night where things work out for us. But we understand that."
Asked about Elliott's goal that wrapped up the victory towards the end, Klopp added: "A very nice moment. I thought he was going to go into the curve (to celebrate with the fans) which wouldn’t have been too cool!
"If you know him a bit closely, you could understand even more how much it means but he played an exceptional game and deserved his goal."
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