Jurgen Klopp congratulated Nat Phillips on achieving promotion to the Premier League with Bournemouth after Liverpool's Champions League victory against Villarreal.
The Reds reached the final of this season's tournament with a 5-2 aggregate victory against the Spanish minnows on Tuesday evening. Around an hour before their fate was confirmed, Bournemouth defeated Nottingham Forest 1-0 at home to secure promotion.
Phillips, 25, joined Bournemouth on loan in January after helping Liverpool reach the last 16 of the Champions League. He played a crucial role in Klopp's team qualifying for Europe's biggest competition after making 17 Premier League outings last term.
The centre-back was called into Liverpool's starting line-up in 2020-21 following serious injuries to Joel Matip, Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez. He formed a partnership with fellow rookie defender Rhys Williams, 21, to help the Reds win their last five league games.
After Matip, Van Dijk and Gomez returned to fitness last summer - and Ibrahima Konate was signed from RB Leipzig - Phillips was deemed surplus to requirements by Klopp and has since made 15 Championship appearances at Bournemouth.
And, following Tuesday evening's results, Phillips will now be able to attend the Champions League final. Bournemouth would've likely finished third if they'd lost to Forest and may have played in the Championship play-off final, which takes place a day after it's Champions League equivalent in Paris on Saturday, May 28.
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"Congratulations to Nat Phillips, by the way," said Klopp at the end of Tuesday's post-match press conference. The Liverpool manager was not asked about the defender's achievement.
Bournemouth's victory ends a two-year absence from the Premier League. "First and foremost I'm delighted for the fans, and my players," said Cherries manager Scott Parker. "They deserve this position. It means a lot. We never had control in the first-half, and we didn't want a basketball match.
"We spoke about control and calm and process. We didn't execute the game plan and in the second half we showed our dominance. This group is a young team, learning their trade in a promotion task. One thing about this group, if we need a result we did deep and find it."
Kieffer Moore, who scored the winner for Bournemouth, added: "I’m speechless, when I came here I had one goal and then had the setback straight away, but I had the dream and thankfully it’s come about. As soon as I had my surgery my first thought was when can I get back and I want to thank the staff for helping me.
"I’m glad it’s behind me and it’s hard to put into words what it means. I’ve dreamt of this moment as a kid [playing in the Premier League] and thankfully I get to live it."
Philip Billing, who set up Moore's winner, said: "It's not sunk in yet, it’s unbelievable. After last season it [play-offs] was something none of us wanted to do, we’ve worked hard all season, and it’s a great emotion because we put so much work in throughout the whole year. We’re a fit team and what we’ve shown with this young team is amazing."
