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Team news will be coming shortly, with both sides expected to be fielding their strongest XI tonight.
Slot did confirm that Cody Gakpo will be in contention for the match after coming back from a knock but Tyler Morton (shoulder), Joe Gomez (hamstring) and Conor Bradley (hamstring) will miss out.
During their 3-1 against Southampton, Slot opted to take Dominik Szoboszlai off at half-time and later said he may have made a “mistake” by overworking the Hungarian. Will he hand Harvey Elliott the nod tonight instead?
Luis Enrique’s brings a fully fit squad to Merseyside and opted to rest almost his entire best XI for his side’s meeting with Rennes. Ousmane Dembélé, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Vitinha, Fabián Ruiz, Achraf Hakimi, Marquinhos, Nuno Mendes and Gianluigi Donnarumma will likely be on the teamsheet after being dropped at the weekend.
PSG’s Luis Enrique has “no doubt” that whoever wins tonight’s tie will be making it to the final, set for 31 May at the Allianz Arena in Munich.
Our goal is clear: to try to be better than our opponents. Away matches are always more difficult, but we have confidence in what we do well. We also know what we have to improve. We want to have the ball more than our opponents, and from there, we’ll see what possibilities come about.
One thing is 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.
Let’s start with what the managers had to say before the tie. The Liverpool head coach, Arne Slot, has branded PSG the most in-form side in Europe and knows his team have to be near-perfect to advance.
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.
Preamble
On the flight home from Paris last week, the Liverpool players were likely counting their lucky stars after their 1-0 defeat of Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie.
It was a classic smash-and-grab, with the hosts dominating for most of the match. Alisson kept the visitors in the match with nine saves and Harvey Elliot ensured the visitors left the French capital with something, scoring moments after he came off the bench, the goal coming completely against the run of play.
The tie is far from over. A hungry PSG side will be keen of righting the loss of last Wednesday while Liverpool will hope to put on a better showing and record another famous night at Anfield under the lights.
With a spot in the quarter-finals is on the line join me for the 8pm GMT/9pm CET kick-off and, as always, feel free to send me an email with any thoughts, predictions, questions, complaints and your favourite Champions League smash-and-grabs.
