Jurgen Klopp: If this is my only final I’ll still die a happy man

JURGEN KLOPP hailed tonight’s all-German final between Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich at Wembley as the perfect match in the perfect setting.

Boss Klopp will guide his Borussia Babes to yet another milestone and this would be the fairytale ending for a club that eight years ago was on the brink of extinction.

When he arrived in 2008 they had finished 11th in the Bundesliga.

He led them to back-to-back championships in the last two years and now they are one match away from being crowned Kings of Europe.

The charismatic Dortmund chief knows this historic occasion could not have a more fitting setting than Wembley — the venue of legends.

Klopp, 45, said: “If this would be the only final in my life it’s the perfect place against the perfect opponent.

“If I die in 60 years and that’s the only final I go to, it’s not so bad.”

Bayern Munich, who left runners-up Borussia 25 points behind in the Bundesliga, are the favourites. But Borussia have won five and drawn two of the last eight competitive matches these two have played.

They drew twice in the Bundesliga this season and Bayern’s only win in the last three seasons came in a German Cup game earlier this year.

Klopp added: “It’s an absolutely special game. It’s not just the fourth Dortmund-Bayern game this season. At this moment it feels normal. But, tomorrow we will feel a big difference, I’m sure. It’s a one-off and nobody wants to lose."

“We will use our tactical potential to bring them down to our level. And then we can beat them.”

Dortmund will be without injured superstar Mario Gotze, who is set to join Bayern after they coughed up his £31.5million get-out clause without telling Borussia’s board last month.

Klopp insisted they have prepared for several weeks to play without Gotze. He said: “We did hope for quite some time that he could play.

“It would have been a surprise if it had worked out but, of course, for the last three or four weeks we expected he would not be playing.”

Klopp chose not to wind up his rivals, claiming underdogs Dortmund will be under as much pressure as Munich.

He added: “I can’t say what the players of Bayern Munich think or if they have a feeling they might suffer a third loss in four years.

“If the outsiders do not feel the same pressure as the favourites, how stupid would that be?."

“You need to focus on the task. People have climbed Mount Everest knowing that 10 metres from the top they might have to turn back — but they tried anyway.”

Klopp’s only concern ahead of the final? The London traffic. It took Dortmund 90 minutes to drive from their Watford base to Wembley for training last night.

Cool Klopp joked, “We’ll have breakfast, then we’ll have lunch and a bit of a siesta and then there’s a meeting and then we’ll see how long to get to the match.

“We had police with us today. Are they not allowed to use their lights and sirens in England?.It would be very useful tomorrow. We had three motorbikes ahead of us."

“If they want us to make the game on time they might have to turn on their blue lights.

“If somebody knows a policeman, ask him. Please.”