Jurgen Klopp: 'Sadio Mane showed what a fantastic player he is'

Jurgen Klopp has admitted that he is glad to see unheralded forward Sadio Mane show what he is capable of in Liverpool's 5-0 thrashing of Porto in the Champions League.

The Senegal international scored three of the Reds' five goals in the first leg of the last-16 tie at the Estadio do Dragao - his first hat-trick for the club.

Mane has been lagging behind attacking teammates Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino in the scoring stakes this term, but Klopp believes that the former Southampton ace has been showing signs of his best form of late.

"He gave the right answer tonight. That's good. I said to him after the last game, 'finally, you're back' immediately after when we talked on the pitch," he told reporters after the match.

"Tonight he showed it again what a fantastic player he is. He was always important, he was always fantastic for us, even in his not-that-good moments. That's a real quality if you are not 100% and still scoring, maybe not that often but involved in goals then that's really important.

"Then they will come if you keep on working really hard like he did then there can be a moment like this. The first one was a little bit lucky I think, but then the other two were being in the right place the second one and using your fantastic skills for the last one. Good, really good, and I am happy about it."

Mane now has 12 goals for the season in all competitions, half of which have come in the Champions League.