Slot Tips Liverpool To Bounce Back Against PSG

Under-fire Liverpool coach Arne Slot said his team will bounce back from their latest setback in a difficult season as they are set for a rematch with Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League on Wednesday.

Liverpool welcome back striker Alexander Isak to the squad following injury for the quarterfinal, first leg in Paris.

It comes off the back of a 4-0 hammering by Manchester City in the FA Cup at the weekend – a game in which captain Virgil van Dijk suggested that the team had given up.

“I didn’t see players giving up. But I think it’s also good for our captain that he has a strong and firm reaction after a game like that,” Slot told reporters at the Parc des Princes ahead of the match.

Slot’s team have won just one of their last five matches and are currently fifth in the Premier League, far from certain of returning to Europe’s elite club competition again next season.

That puts extra pressure on him and his side to secure a tie against the reigning European champions, a repeat of the last-16 clash a year ago, which Liverpool lost on penalties at Anfield despite winning 1-0 in the first leg in France.

“We can never take a quarterfinal of the Champions League for granted, let alone if you face the champions of Europe that fully deserved to win the Champions League last season, and again this season are doing very, very well,” Slot said.

“I just look at the challenge in itself, and it’s a nice one because in football it’s sometimes also nice to get a second chance, and in life in general it’s nice to get a second chance.”