Liverpool -head coach Arne Slot admits that his side will have to produce their best performance of the season to ensure the progress of the Champions League against “the most complete team we have confronted”.
After having passed the most difficult night of his Anfield regime and the most difficult for the players in a long time-in the Parc des Princes last week but still getting away with a 1-0 win, the Dutchman knows that they should increase their game for the second stage of their last 16 draw against Paris Saint-Germain.
The conversation in the French capital After Liverpool had removed a profit from Backs-to-the-Wall, it was that PSG had encountered better teams this season in the form of Bayern Munich and Arsenal.
Slot, however, has promised that they will be more proactive and not lean back on their slender advantage.
“Is there a difference [leading 1-0]? No. We try to play every game to try to win, “he said.
“That is also what we tried to do last week, it was not our intention to be so low [deep] all the time.
“[On Tuesday] We want to play a different game, the intention is always the same – we are not going for a draw.
“In Manchester City Away that was not the situation, with PSG that was not the situation. But we take confidence from our home game against City where we had the ball much more and it was much more a draw.”
When asked if it would require their best performance among him so far, Slot added: “Yes. I think so. This is the most complete team that we have confronted so far.
“We have confronted with Arsenal and City and they are not big margins, but the intensity them [PSG] Play in combination with the quality – and they are one of the richest clubs – and a great manager is not easy to play against. “
'PSG have improved since Arsenal and Bayern loses'
Statisticians have predicted that Liverpool has an incredible chance of 84 percent to make progress and the history seems to be on their side, because on the 39 earlier occasions they have won the first stage of a European draw that they have undergone.
Their record in Anfield is formidable, after having lost only once – in September – since April and this season has won two other home games this season.
“Some of them have said that Arsenal and Bayern Munich were better than we did. That is what I have heard,” said Slot about the French view of his team.
“I think what that has to do is how PSG improved a lot in the two to three months since they played in Arsenal and Bayern.
“At Arsenal they were lower, waited much more and now they just press over the entire field and they constantly take the risk one-V-one.
“I can't influence what they felt – and I don't even know if it's true or not – but I hope they have a different opinion [Tuesday]. “
Slot is stimulated by the return of forward Cody Gakpo after an injury.
PSG -Baas Enrique says that the winner of the Final will reach
PSG head coach Luis Enrique believes that the team that prevails in their last 16-drawing game against Liverpool in Anfield at Anfield will be his finalists of Champions League.
“The most important game is the one who comes next and I hope so [the most important game] Will be the last of the season, “he said.
“Although we are lagging behind from the first stage, we play our own game from the start. Regardless of the result [in Paris] We would do nothing else.
“At the moment we are out, so our only option is to go out and win and that is what drives us. I don't think Arne Slot has many doubts about our starting XI, I also have my ideas about his starting XI.
“I am not going to give away who we are going to play or how we are going to play, but in the course of two games we see two of the best teams in Europe, two contenders for the final and who will go through it will continue to the final.”
Enrique is convinced that his team can handle the pressure in a “historic stadium”.
“I am quite convinced that absolutely all my players want to play,” he added.
“We know what Liverpool means with a historic stadium and a beautiful history. It is a huge source of motivation for the players and we want to show that we are able to do a performance.
“It is difficult to manage someone's emotions and feelings, these are not simple games to prepare and it is not easy to be 100 percent.
“But you don't want to be at 105 or 110 percent because you can drag yourself, so you have to manage your emotions in the best possible way.”
Why PSG's Champions League troppy with Liverpool is far from over
Rich Morgan from Sky Sports:
Liverpool may have a foot in the quarter-finals of the Champions League after last week's 1-0 victory in Paris Saint-Germain, but the side of Slot would make a big mistake if they were to deal with the task with which the Ligue 1-Champions are visiting Anfield for the return meeting.
History is certainly against the Parisians when they travel to Merseyside. Of the 27 previous teams that lose the first stage at home in a knockout of Champions League, only three have been advanced.
In the meantime, Liverpool has extracted the first stage from home on the seven times, they have won the return change three times, pulled twice and lost twice.
However, PSG must be warned that even when the Reds lost the second stage in Anfield, they still succeeded in standing both times in the last 16 against Barcelona in 2006/07 and Inter Milan in 2021/22.
In fact, Liverpool has in fact won and eliminated the first stage of a Champions League Knock-Outdie, as happened when Gerard Houllier Bayer Leverkusen's side defeated in Anfield in the last eight in 2001/02, only to go out after a 4-2 loss in the Bayara.
Although the opportunities can resemble PSG that the quarterfinals spend – Skybet give them a 7/4 chance to win at Anfield – there are plenty of reasons to hope on the Luis Enrique side.
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