Sadio Mané and Dejan Lovren have encapsulated the belief soaring through Liverpool by insisting Real Madrid hold no fear in the Champions League final and that the 12-times winners should be the team approaching the Kiev final with trepidation.

Lovren thanked Jürgen Klopp for restoring Liverpool’s pride after the club reached an eighth European Cup final appearance with a 7-6 aggregate defeat of Roma. Mané, who opened the scoring in the semi-final second leg at Stadio Olimpico, described the result and tumultuous scenes that followed as among the greatest moments of his life.

Both players were more focused on the final with Real on 26 May, however, and claimed a team that has scored 46 goals in this season’s competition will not have an inferiority complex against the European champions from three of the past four years.

“Why should we fear them?” asked Lovren. “They should fear us. They are quite confident but we don’t care for that – we are focused on our job.” Mané expanded on the confidence that Liverpool possess under Klopp. “We honestly believe we can beat them,” the Senegal striker who, with Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino, is responsible for 31 of Liverpool’s 46 European goals this season, said.

“I can say at this moment we do have a lot of respect for Madrid, they are one of the best teams in the world, but we are Liverpool – we are strong and we can beat any team in the world. We believe that. So we believe we can go there and beat them. We are going to go there and fight for the fans, for the club, fight without fear and win the final. We have the players. We can score goals, we have shown that and there is nothing to be afraid of for us.”

Mané led the celebrations in front of Liverpool’s delirious 5,000 supporters following a tense finale in which Roma came within a goal of taking the semi-final to extra time. The 26‑year‑old said: “Honestly, I can’t believe that the dream has become true. It means so much to achieve this – everybody is happy now. It really is one of my best days.

“It is one of my greatest moments in football. I can say that because this kind of moment you can’t say is there for every player. It happens for so few players, and for me I can say this is one of my greatest moments. I am very proud of what this team has achieved. Everybody was dancing like crazy. Everybody was so happy, dancing together, we enjoyed the moment together. It was special to be in that dressing room, such an incredible moment.”

Liverpool have reached three finals since Klopp replaced Brendan Rodgers as manager in October 2015: the League Cup and Europa League in his first campaign and now European football’s elite competition in his third. Having lost the first two, and his past five finals in total, the Liverpool manager has backed his players to break that sequence against Zinédine Zidane’s reigning champions.

Lovren insists the team have also regained their pride under the German, irrespective of the outcome in Kiev. “He has changed many things in the club, not just the players but things around the club - people, he has changed the mentality, how we think. Everything is more positive now. Even when we sometimes don’t play good he always finds something good and there is not negativity.

“He deserves this. It is not accidental that he already reached the final of the Champions League in 2013 with Borussia Dortmund. He has given the club pride back. Everyone feels that, everyone lives that. Everyone should be proud that we have a manager like him.”