COMMENT: Nah. We're not having this. Liverpool in Kiev? It can't be. No big names. No leaders. No back four... No decent keeper. Calm down will ya. Klopp's lot has no chance...

This just isn't supposed to happen. This is the age of Neymar and €222m transfers. Of Barca and Bayern. Not this Liverpool team.

Whatever's being said about Jurgen Klopp today, he's reached the Champions League final on his terms. He's done it his way. With the players he wanted. The money he was prepared to spend. This is his achievement.

All that finger wagging over the season (and yes, this column was guilty also) has been shown up. Proved wrong. Klopp stuck to his guns. Both publicly and behind the gates at Melwood. The mantra was still the same. We go with these players. We believe in their potential. Their quality. And this past week, that faith was repaid.

Cycle back 18 months and Klopp sounded naive. A dreamer. Reacting to the £100m spent by Manchester United to sign Paul Pogba, the German scoffed: "You always want to have the best, but building the group is necessary to be successful.

"Other clubs can go out and spend more money and collect top players.

"I want to do it differently. I would even do it differently if I could spend that money."

It was head in the clouds stuff. Even arrogant. But now? The day after the night before? He's done it. He's been true to last season's word. Klopp has led Liverpool to the Champions League final without wavering.

Two kids at fullback. The goalkeeper he signed, supported and helped survive locker room politicking. A midfield shorn of two internationals. And an attack that was in desperate need (or so we claimed) of a centre-forward.

Buy a new keeper. Find another centre-half. You lack a ball winner. And there's no natural No9. These were all complaints leveled at Klopp this season. Yet just look at this team now.

Trent Alexander-Arnold shouldn't have been in Rome. Just a few weeks ago the teen was turned inside-out at Old Trafford. Another manager would've taken the kid out of the firing line. Yet Klopp persisted. And since then, Alexander-Arnold has improved game upon game.

This week, before the Olimpico, Andrew Robertson managed to pull off a rarity at Liverpool: elicit an apology from Gary Neville. From branding the Scot a liability at the start of the season, the former Manchester United captain now says he's the best left-back in the country. How much did Klopp spend on him? Oh that's right, 8 million quid. Not exactly the stuff of Manchester City's fullback outlay...

But that theme runs throughout this Liverpool team: proving the knockers wrong.

You fancy Loris Karius will never be rid of 'em. But Klopp won't care. The former Mainz No1 was his signing. His keeper. And as ruthless as it is, soon as Simon Mignolet gave him an excuse, Klopp installed his countryman as outright first-choice. Gone were the rotations. And gone was Mignolet's LFC career.

There's a mistake in Karius. Even Klopp acknowledges that. But this is his player. His No1. And that's all Karius needs to hear. And now, the German is one game away from being European champion.

Emre Can. Adam Lallana. The Ox. They've all broken down on the way to Kiev. Then there's Philippe Coutinho and Barcelona. But those claims about lack of depth hasn't come back to bite Klopp. He's been happy to go with what he has. Persist. Juggle. And always believe. At the Olimpico he had Ben Woodburn and Dominic Solanke on the bench. And with the threat of penalties, he threw on Solanke for Roberto Firmino. It's that belief his players - to a man - are responding to.

And how's the old man's belief? Because facing Real Madrid he'll have to slay his own dragon. Klopp goes into his first Cup final without right-hand man Zeljko Buvac. Now in Mainz, via Omarska, Buvac will watch from afar after handing in his resignation on Sunday. Some timing...

For some, Klopp has lost his "brain". Buvac was the quiet tactician. The creator of the gegenpress. Like many of his players, Klopp now has something to prove on May 26.

And just as he's done since arriving at Anfield, he'll relish the challenge. And meet it on his terms.