Arne Slot believes Liverpool must produce their best performance of the season to finish off “a complete” Paris Saint-Germain team that gave him sleepless nights after the Champions League encounter last week.
Liverpool take a 1-0 lead into the last-16 second leg at Anfield but Slot rates the tie at “50-50” on the evidence of PSG’s display at Parc des Princes. “The result was ours, the performance was for them,” he said.
PSG’s head coach Luis Enrique insisted the winner of the tie would reach the Champions League final in Munich on May 31st. But despite the high stakes, a 15-point lead in the Premier League and a Carabao Cup final to come against Newcastle on Sunday, Slot claimed he could not dream of potential silverware given PSG’s dominance on home soil last Wednesday.
“In a week like this I do not dream at all,” the Liverpool head coach said. “I just know I have to work really, really hard to prepare the team in the best possible way.
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“If you have a game like we did last week you feel: ‘Can I even go to sleep at all or do I have to watch even more?’ So, no, I do not dream at all about this week. It started very well in terms of beating Southampton. Now we are just looking forward to a game like this, at Anfield, with two great teams playing each other.”
Slot, who has Cody Gakpo back from injury, admitted Liverpool would have to find another level in an already outstanding campaign to overcome the French champions. He claimed the 2-0 win against Manchester City at Anfield in December should give the six-time European champions confidence.
“Yes, I do think so [that the best performance of the season will be needed] because PSG are the most complete team we have faced so far. What I mean by complete is, OK, we have faced Arsenal and City and they are not big margins, but the intensity they played at combined with the quality they have and they are one of the richest clubs. Maybe there is one club a bit further ahead.
“They have so much quality and a great manager who has the team playing in a way that is not easy to play against. He brings the best out of every player and brings out an incredible work-rate. We have to be at our best. But we didn’t have ball possession at City away – the other richest club in the world together with Paris Saint-Germain – and at home we had a completely different performance against City.”
Reports from the PSG dressingroom have claimed Enrique’s players felt Arsenal and Bayern Munich were tougher opponents in the Champions League group than Liverpool. Slot did not rise to the bait, insisting PSG have changed and improved since the group phase, but he denied the Premier League leaders were poor in Paris.
“Some people said we played poorly, I don’t agree. I think they played tremendously well,” he said. “I don’t think we have played a team this season who combined that much quality with intensity. But I do think we can play better. We are a better team than we were last week and that is something we have to prove tomorrow with the help of our fans.”
Enrique admitted he broke with post-match routine to address his players immediately after their first-leg defeat. The PSG head coach said: “I almost never speak to players at the end of the game. There is no point because the players are thinking about the result. But after the game on Wednesday I wanted to pick them up and tell them they had done everything to get a result.
“One thing for sure, over the course of the two games we will be seeing two of the best teams in Europe, two contenders to win the Champions League. Whoever wins tomorrow will go through to the final, I’ve no doubt.” – Guardian
