Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp explained his decision to leave Xherdan Shaqiri out for his side s trip to Red Star Belgrade, saying his team s focus was purely on the game.
Shaqiri was born in Kosovo, an ethnically Albanian province that fought a war of independence against Serbian-dominated Yugoslav forces in the late 1990s. The Serbian government refuses to recognise Kosovo s independence.
The 27-year-old made headlines during the World Cup after celebrating his winner for Switzerland against Serbia by crossing his hands to imitate an eagle, which appears on Albania s flag.
Klopp opted against taking the attacker to Belgrade for Tuesday s Champions League clash and said Shaqiri had accepted his decision.
I took a lot of times in my life a decision about a playing squad, a travel squad, and so far the player s always accepted it, he told a news conference.
We come here as a football team and we represent one of the biggest football clubs in the world. That s why we re here, to play football. We want to focus on that, that s all.
Tomorrow = Matchday Four
— Liverpool FC (@LFC)
And because of the situation, people here all know better how the situation is, we decided not to bring Shaq here.
And I said it, he s our player, he will play a lot of games for us but not [on Tuesday], that s all.
Liverpool thrashed Red Star Belgrade 4-0 last month and top Group C by a point heading into the clash.
