Arne Slot admits Liverpool will need a “very special” performance to overturn their 2-0 deficit against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League quarter-final second leg on Tuesday.
Slot’s side are on the brink of being eliminated by PSG for a second successive season after a disappointing display in Paris last week.
Liverpool failed to muster a single shot on target at the Parc des Princes and Slot acknowledged they will have to improve significantly to stun Luis Enrique’s team at Anfield.
“We know we need an exceptional performance to go to the next round but that’s completely normal when you face the champions of Europe,” Slot told reporters on Monday.
“In the 49 home games we have played under me, 36 times we were able to score two goals or more.
“Yes, we have not played all these 49 games against Paris Saint-Germain, I realise that, but the Premier League and Champions League opponents we had were very strong.
“So there is a belief we can do special things tomorrow but we need to be very, very, very special to achieve that.”
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Slot has come under mounting scrutiny following Liverpool’s woeful defence of the Premier League title and their embarrassing FA Cup quarter-final exit in a 4-0 thrashing at Manchester City.
After three successive defeats against Brighton, City and PSG, Liverpool kept the critics at bay, for a few days at least, with a 2-0 win against Fulham on Saturday.
But a tame exit from the Champions League would intensify the pressure on Slot ahead of Sunday’s Merseyside derby at Everton.
‘Start aggressive’
Slot knows Liverpool need to at least put up a better fight than in Paris, where they struggled to retain possession and rarely troubled the PSG defence.
“We are playing the champions of Europe so that makes the task more difficult but not impossible,” he said.
“For now let’s just focus on the job on hand, start aggressive and make sure we can get back in the tie.
“Even Saturday showed how important a goal is… minutes (later) we scored the second. That is what football is about, a goal can change the momentum, which happened negatively for us at Manchester City.”
While Slot was criticised for Liverpool’s passive first-leg performance, the Reds boss insisted his side could win with a similar approach at Anfield.
“People probably find it very hard what I am about to say now but the approach is not so different tomorrow than it was in Paris. For the people who know me I never tell them to play in a low block for 90 minutes,” he said.
“You could see we pressed them high on multiple occasions. Unfortunately, seven or eight of those moments led them to being one-on-one with our goalkeeper.
“The last time we faced each other they had the ball for 76 percent of the time, so that’s the first thing we have to change tomorrow, to have the ball more.
“If we have it more then it’s nice to have the attacking threat on the pitch and that’s what we will have tomorrow.”
AFP
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