Arne Slot is not one for comparisons with Liverpool legends it seems.
Nor is he one that has been dragged along with their season so far.
So it was not surprising for him to ignore almost completely a question about how he could follow in the footsteps of head icon Joe Fagan and the Reds to the competition, European Cup and League Cup Glory led in his first season. He was not interested in thinking that his Reds -outfit is already the best team in Europe, only because of their amazing campaign so far.
The focus is on progressing the last-16 against an in-shape PSG side over two legs than dreaming to be immortalized like Fagan, who likes to follow Jurgen Klopp, took over from Bob Paisley. Yet it is difficult to get away from the feeling that something special is happening with Liverpool this season.
They lead the Premier League with 13 points and they are in the Carabao Cup final. They were also at the top of the renewed competition system in Europe. That had PSG boss Luis Enrique who called them the best side in Europe on the eve of this first-leg fixture at the Parc des Princess.
But lock does not believe that they can be considered the best team on the continent, unless they go completely and win the trophy in May.
“It's a great compliment to get, but the best team in Europe has to win the Champions League,” said Slot. “But we are far away, starting with a very difficult game against PSG and then all the difficult ones that come up because we have seen the draw.
“I think the best team in Europe is still Real Madrid at the moment because they won this competition last season. Someone else can say something else, but for us we have to win first before we can say it. “
This season they were really defeated in the competition phase and also overcome Bayer Leverkusen in an almost perfect run that saw seven victories before a much changed team lost to PSV in what was a dead rubber for Liverpool.
Yet they are now in the business end of the competition and are confronted with a PSG side that ended low in the competition of the competition, but is now in a red-hot form.
The side of Luis Enrique has been on an unbeaten run of 22 game since a loss of 1-0 in Bayern Munich at the end of November. The Ligue 1 Giants have won their last 10 games in all competitions with 40 scored goals. January Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Bradley Barcola are expected to play in addition to Ousmane Dembele in a front line that now has no Kylian Mbappe but is still very dangerous.
It does not seem entirely fair that Liverpool is at the top of the competition stage, but still gets such a draw. But lock said: “We could only have two (teams) (teams): Benfica or PSG.
“Although I really like Benfica, everyone who has watched football in recent months could tell you that we might have preferred Benfica instead of PSG. B
“But this is also a great game to play. It is a great stadium to play in. If you play in Liverpool, you want to play in large games and this is definitely a big game for us.
“We have to accept the draw and both teams are confronted with a very strong opponent.”
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