Arne Slot says Liverpool believe they can “do special things” when they welcome Paris Saint-Germain to Anfield in the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final on Tuesday night.
Goals from Desire Doue and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia condemned the Reds to a 2-0 first-leg defeat in the Parc des Princes on April 8, but the Dutchman says the task that lies ahead is “not impossible.”
“First of all, (I will) remind them what the score was. It was 2-0. It felt completely different, as we all know, but the end result was 2-0,” Slot said in his press conference on Monday afternoon.
“Second of all, we’ve shown so many times in big games this season that we are able to get a great performance. We’ve also shown a different face; I’m completely aware of that, but many of our games were very good, especially in big games.
“Not all of us have been together for one-and-a-half years, but for those that have been with me in that time, in the 49 home games we’ve played, 46 times we were able to score two goals or more.
“Yes, we did not play in all 46 games against Paris Saint-Germain. I do understand that, but as we all know, the Premier League and Champions League opponents we had over here are also very strong.
“There is a belief we can do special things tomorrow, but we also need to be very, very, very, very, very special to achieve that because we are playing against the champions of Europe, so that makes the task more complicated, but not impossible.”
Slot was then asked about how he was considering setting up his team for the visit of the Ligue 1 leaders – and he admitted the situation meant there would be risk-taking.
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“People will probably find it very hard to believe what I’m going to say now, but the approach is not so different for tomorrow than it was in Paris,” he said.
“For the people who know me, I never put out a team and tell them to go to a low block for 90 minutes.
“If you look at the game back, you can see we pressed them high on multiple occasions. Unfortunately, seven or eight of those moments led to them being one-on-one with our goalkeeper.
“Again, the approach tomorrow will be to take the risk, because that’s first of all what we need, but to get the ball off them, you need to press them, and we saw how difficult it is to press these players.
Liverpool boss Arne Slot admitted his side were lucky to leave Paris only trailing by two goals and revealed the reason he chose not to turn to Mohamed Salah on the bench
“We have to find the perfect balance between being offensive, but to be offensive you need to have the ball and you have to do so many things well before your attackers can attack.
“Tomorrow, two teams are facing each other and both would like to have the ball a lot – the last time we faced each other, they had the ball for 76 per cent of the time.
“That’s the first thing we have to change tomorrow, to have the ball more, and if we have it more, then it’s nice to have an attacking threat on the pitch and that’s what we’ll have tomorrow.”
Szoboszlai apologises for FA Cup ‘misunderstanding’ and says ‘we’re going to go all-in’ vs PSG
Dominik Szoboszlai feels his flashpoint with Liverpool fans this month was a “misunderstanding”.
Social media footage showed Szoboszlai shrugging, raising his arms and clapping, widely interpreted as sarcasm, towards Reds supporters after a heavy 4-0 FA Cup quarter-final defeat at Manchester City.
The midfielder was ushered away by team-mate Federico Chiesa amid a chorus of boos at the final whistle but Szoboszlai, regarded as Liverpool’s best player this season, played down the incident.
Arne Slot responds to tough questions after Liverpool’s 4-0 defeat to Manchester City in the FA Cup
“Maybe it was a misunderstanding between me and the fans,” he said. “I didn’t mean it in a bad way. Obviously I know what the fans mean to this club and what the club means to the fans.
“We do everything for the fans as they do for us. If it was a misunderstanding then I apologise.
“I’m not feeling better than them, I feel exactly the same as they do. I am with them, we are with them and hopefully they are with us as well.”
Szoboszlai was speaking ahead of the second leg of Liverpool’s Champions League quarter-final against Paris St Germain, who hold the halfway advantage after winning 2-0 in the French capital last week.
However, Liverpool have staged a number of extraordinary European comebacks and Szoboszlai insisted he and his team-mates will do everything in their power to battle back against the defending champions.
“We’re going to go all in and give our best,” he added. “I can speak for all of the players because we want it so bad. Anything can happen in one game at Anfield.
“It is going to be a different game from the first leg. We are going to be doing stuff in a different way.
“We need to go all in and give everything possible. If at the end of the game you can say you gave everything then you can keep your chin up and say ‘we tried’. We don’t need any more motivation.”
