Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp believes that the mood in the Anfield camp is now "completely" different after their "freak" 7-1 win over Rangers in the Champions League.
The Merseyside giants were aiming to bounce back from their 3-2 defeat at the hands of Arsenal at Ibrox and got off to the worst possible start when Scott Arfield opened the scoring with 17 minutes gone.
Roberto Firmino restored parity for Liverpool before half time, and the floodgates opened in the second 45, as a ruthless Reds side struck six more times to inflict a humiliating defeat on Giovanni van Bronckhorst's men.
Mohamed Salah's quickfire hat-trick, alongside efforts from Firmino, Harvey Elliott and Darwin Nunez, got the job done in emphatic fashion for Liverpool, who now sit second on nine points in Group A.
With Manchester City preparing to visit Anfield for Sunday's Premier League showdown, Klopp believes that the morale within his squad has been boosted tenfold with such a domineering win.
"It changed the mood, definitely. It is completely different. We usually drink a beer after away games, but it is that long ago that I drank beer and I probably will be drunk after one!" Klopp said in his post-game press conference.
"Yes, it changes the mood completely and that's good, but we all know who we are welcoming [to Anfield] on Sunday and this will be a different game, we know that. It is better to go into a game with the feeling we've got tonight than any other.
"It's a freak result and we all know that and we don't make more of it than we should, but obviously it is the best we could have asked for and that is why I am pretty pleased.
"We had that before years ago, I am not sure where but we won with a big result in the Champions League and now we have to recover, that's really important."
Salah was named on the bench for the European encounter amid a difficult start to the season, but the 30-year-old ended the night with a place in the history books after scoring the fastest hat-trick in Champions League history.
Salah had the ball in the back of the net three times in six minutes and 12 seconds, and Klopp labelled the attacker's historic contribution at Ibrox "typical" while also hailing the performances of every single one of his players.
"Special. Typical Mo," Klopp added. "Yes, of course we all know when Mo, when it is running for him, he is exceptional, absolutely exceptional. Obviously a different position tonight coming on, it was just good. Of course, I hope for him that everything works well from now on, like I hope for us.
"I cannot think of one player who didn't have a good game; the two kids of the right and left wing, really good, Fabio [Carvalho] and Harvey. And then when you can change like we changed tonight, if you can do that, the boys come on and are ready to contribute and things like this can happen."
Elliott's strike represented a personal milestone for the 19-year-old - his first goal in the Champions League - and Klopp affirmed that his "exceptional" showing warranted that moment.
"A very nice moment. I thought he was going to run into the crowd, that would have been not too cool, but yes. If you know him a bit closer you would even more understand how much it means to him. But he played an exceptional game and deserved this goal, really," Klopp said.
Liverpool now need just a point on matchday five away to Ajax to seal their place in the knockout stages, with Napoli already through after picking up four wins from four so far. body check tags ::
