Slot previews Liverpool's Champions League tie against PSG

‌Published 43 minutes ago By James Carroll and Sam Williams at Parc des PrincesRead Arne Slot's preview of Liverpool's Champions League quarter-final first leg against Paris Saint-Germain with our round-up from the head coach's pre-match press conference.Slot faced the media at Parc des Princes soon after arriving in France ahead of Wednesday night's game – which is a repeat of last season's Round of 16 first leg that the Reds won 1-0, thanks in no small part to an incredible performance from Alisson Becker.See a summary of the boss' press conference below.On the team's effort throughout the defeat at Manchester City on Saturday...Sometimes in a game of football, you want to do things in a certain way but you're not able to for various reasons, but one of them can definitely be conceding goals when you think you're playing well and in the game. Usually in football, moments that hurt you most are just before half-time and just after. So, you go in at half-time, for large spells of the game feeling you went toe-to-toe with City but then you are 2-0 down.Then immediately after half-time you concede the 3-0, then five minutes in between – and we had two big chances from Mo [Salah], by the way – where it was too open, players were struggling. The good thing for us was that after the 4-0, City seemed to be OK with the 4-0 and we had the ball and constant ball possession but were not able to create that much anymore. I didn't see players giving up in that part of the game, but I think it is also good from captain that he has a strong and firm reaction after a game like that and hopefully it's not only immediately after the game, but we can – as a team – show a strong and firm reaction tomorrow evening.On what gives him confidence Liverpool can show a reaction...That's a very simple answer: the first 35 minutes because it's not the first setback we've had, losing 4-0, it's not the first time there are 10, 15 or 20 minutes of a game where we don't play our best football and we immediately get punished by a goal. Sometimes it's one, sometimes it's two and in this situation there were four – the only four chances we gave away in the game, by the way. The first 35 minutes gives me a lot of confidence that we are able to go toe to toe against a team that, combined with Paris Saint-Germain, is for me one of the best – or the best – two teams in open play. The hardest teams to play against in open play, because of their quality and because of the way they are managed.We were able to do very well for 35 minutes but I can tell you the 20 minutes we had at City, if we have them tomorrow evening here, we will again concede four goals because these players over here know how to act if we have a 20 minutes of that. So, it's a challenge for us to be from the first until the last second at the level we were in the first 35 minutes. If not, it is going to be a really hard night again, like it was last year where we completely deserved to lose 4-0 over here or maybe more. But that's the beauty of football – in the 85th minute we scored a goal where it was almost like, 'This was robbery!'You have to accept cookies in order to view this content on our site.Watch on YouTube On speaking to the players in the days after the City defeat...Of course, we talk to the players in meetings but also individually. I think it makes complete sense and it is completely normal the feeling Virgil [van Dijk] shared after the game. That is the feeling every player had – and not only every player, but every staff member and every fan and supporter of Liverpool as well. Everyone involved in Liverpool Football Club was disappointed after that result. That takes one or two days before you look forward, look ahead to the next game, but before you do that you first address what we have to improve and that's quite obvious – I think everyone can see that.If you only look at those 20 minutes, you can see a lot of things that we can improve. We cannot compare Paris Saint-Germain with City completely because when we had the control and ball possession in the first 35 minutes, that also had to do with City staying more positional, not going so aggressive towards us, whereas Paris Saint-Germain have shown in the last seasons since Luis Enrique is here that they don't give you any second of time to have the ball comfortably at your feet. It is press, press, press, press, press every second of the game.On how the team can 'harness the negativity and turn it into something positive'...The good thing is that during this year we have become quite experienced in terms of negativity because of all the setbacks we've had this season. This was a big one because it was the quarter-final, because it was a big loss, because it was against our rivals. But for me it felt just as bad when we were 3-2 up at Leeds and we conceded in extra-time and when we were going 2-1 up against Fulham and we conceded in extra-time. If I start to name all the setbacks we had this season, I see other people want to ask questions [in this press conference], then it's probably not possible [to list them all].On the level of pressure on Liverpool to perform well in this tie given the contrast in their current fortunes compared to when the clubs met in the Round of 16 last season…You're right, we were in the League Cup still after we lost against Paris Saint-Germain and three days later we lost the final. I think, if you play a quarter-final, it doesn't matter that much where you are in the season – if you're still in the FA Cup, League Cup or where you are in your domestic league, it's always a special moment. We can never take a quarter-final 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, very well.So, I don't look at that much of where we are in the season. I just look at the challenge itself and a nice one because, in football, it's sometimes also nice to get a second chance. In life [and] in general, it's nice to get a second chance. And as I said, [Manchester] City and Paris Saint-Germain are quite comparable… because of the quality they are having and the style of play they want to have, or they have. So, it's another chance for us to show that we are not the team that we were [during the] 20 minutes that we prefer to forget in the Etihad, but we were the team in the first 35 minutes.Florian Wirtz previews PSG v Liverpool: 'These are the games I dreamt of'On whether it is important there is a 'favourite' in the tie… In general, I don't think it matters that much if there was a favourite yes or no because it's only about two games and a lot can happen in two games. I think both teams have very good players, both teams were able to show last season to go toe-to-toe. By the way, we deserved to lose here last season 4-0 completely [and] much more than we deserved to lose on Saturday 4-0. But that game, it was only thanks to Alisson that we didn't lose 4-0 and then we got away with a 1-0 win. At Anfield, for me, it wasn't completely the opposite. It wasn't as if we deserved to win that game with 4-0 but, for me, we deserved to win that game.But the big difference between these two teams is that Paris Saint-Germain kept the whole group together… and I think our team will look completely, not completely, but we'll look quite different to the team that was here last season.On whether winning this tie would give Liverpool a comparable boost to the one PSG got by beating the Reds en route to lifting the trophy last season…Well, I don't think so far ahead. especially if you face Paris Saint-German. So, like I said, the champions of Europe, fully deserved, [and] this season kept the team together. As it proves out in football, usually the longer teams play together, the better they become, if that was even possible because they were so impressive last season. But I have watched quite a lot of games of them and they are just as impressive, maybe even more impressive, this season. There's even more rotations and they are still a very good team.But as it is in football, details can decide a lot because who takes penalties best? That is what made the difference last season for Paris Saint-Germain to beat us and then go all the way to win the final, and usually a team needs to win a penalty shootout [to win a trophy]. It's the same in the World Cup or in the Champions League and as much as I wanted to believe that there is no luck involved in the penalty shootouts – because you can train it, you can prepare it, you can do a lot of things for it – sometimes maybe this has to do also a little bit of luck with the goalkeeper because [Gianluigi] Donnarumma was great.But I'm not looking so far ahead. It is first this task tomorrow evening and then on Saturday there's a big game in our stadium against Fulham, and then the next one against Paris Saint-Germain. And for the ones who don't know, then there is another big game playing away from home [against] Everton.On how he 'sees a way out of' Liverpool's run of form...I cannot debate that; it's completely true that performances and results have been very inconsistent throughout the whole season. I think the answer lies in the history of Liverpool. This club has always shown that in tough moments, they stand up again. I think we've had a lot of tough moments and we've stood up a few times but then fallen down again. Now, we have to show that mentality again – of just keep going up and picking ourselves up after a disappointment because this club has shown also many times that we can do very special things in difficult circumstances. Especially if we can bring this game to Anfield, as we saw last season, as we've seen so many times.A recent example was the Galatasaray games where we didn't have our best game away at Galatasaray and we played probably the best game of the season at home against Galatasaray. The answer is already in the history of Liverpool but it is easier said than done because we've shown far too many times this season that we have phases in the game, like the 20 minutes at the Etihad – usually it's only five to 10, that's why we usually only conceded one or a maximum of two goals, but 20 minutes means it's four goals conceded. Like I said, easier said than done but this group has shown many times to come back after setbacks and this club has even done it many, many, many, many more times.So, apart from the quality my team has – and by the way, Paris Saint-Germain has a bit of quality as well! – they have shown many times in big games, with the exception of twice at the Etihad, that we are able to compete with the best teams in Europe. Now it is up to us to show the team that we've been and I can name Real Madrid [at home] and these games.16 stats to know about Paris Saint-Germain v LiverpoolPublished 43 minutes ago