These are the European nights Liverpool fans live for.
As they prepare to take on Paris Saint-Germain in the second leg of their quarter-final tie, Reds fans in Liverpool and around the world will be steeling themselves for what they hope will be another memorable Champions League clash.
But it could easily turn into a nightmare, with PSG red-hot favourites to progress to the semi-finals after winning last week’s first leg 2-0, and with Liverpool in patchy form at best.
Arne Slot’s side sit fifth on the Premier League ladder after beating Fulham on the weekend but lost three games in a row before that, including the first leg against PSG.
When asked how he will get his players to believe they can beat the defending European champions, Slot pointed to the fact that a two-goal deficit is hardly insurmountable.
“First of all I’d remind the players of the score. It was 2-0,” Slot said. “It felt completely different on the night but the result was 2-0 and we have shown many times this season in big games that we are able to give a great performance.
“There is a belief we can do special things tomorrow but we need to be very, very special to achieve that as we are playing against the champions of Europe. That makes the task more complicated but not impossible.”
Meanwhile PSG coach Luis Enrique was wary of being too complacent heading into a game that almost everyone outside of Liverpool thinks his team will win.
“There could be pitfalls, there could be a trap here with people saying we won easily last week,” Enrique said. “That might be true, I don’t know, but things can change quickly in a football match so you need to take care of the details. If we concede then the game is really open. We don’t want to allow Liverpool to benefit from their fans and the noise they create, but that is also motivation for us.”
Match Details and How to Watch
Liverpool vs Paris Saint-Germain, UEFA Champions League quarter-final, second leg
Date: Wednesday 15 April (Australian time) / Tuesday 14 April (European time)
Kick-off: 5am AEST / 8pm local
Venue: Anfield, Liverpool
Broadcast: Stan Sport
The First Leg
PSG 2 – 0 Liverpool
The Squads
Liverpool: Giorgi Mamardashvili, Freddie Woodman, Kornel Misciur, Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konaté, Joe Gomez, Jeremie Frimpong, Milos Kerkez, Andrew Robertson, Dominik Szoboszlai, Alexis Mac Allister, Ryan Gravenberch, Curtis Jones, Trey Nyoni, Mohamed Salah, Florian Wirtz, Alexander Isak, Cody Gakpo, Hugo Ekitike, Federico Chiesa, Rio Ngumoha, Tyler Morrison
Paris Saint-Germain: Achraf Hakimi, Lucas Beraldo, Marquinhos, Illia Zabarnyi, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Gonçalo Ramos, Ousmane Dembélé, Désiré Doué, Vitinha, Lee Kang-In, Lucas Hernandez, Senny Mayulu, Nuno Mendes, Dro Fernández, Bradley Barcola, Lucas Chevalier, Warren Zaïre-Emery, Matvey Safonov, Ibrahim Mbaye, Willian Pacho, João Neves, Renato Marin