Arne Slot: Liverpool will perform better against PSG as they look for champions league quarter final spot

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Arne Slot: Liverpool will perform better against PSG as they look for champions league quarter final spot   10/03/2025  Anfield, Liverpool, UK

Transcript

00:00Thank you, Amy.

00:13Lewis Henrique has just said that he thinks whoever wins this tie will go on to the final,

00:18he's also said in the last few days as well that PSG have nothing to lose coming here,

00:22so how do you see it?

00:25I think after this game there's still a long way to go to the final,

00:29and we already know which teams we can face,

00:34and I know from playing, OK, there's first Aston Villa or Club Rouge,

00:39and then afterwards it's probably going to be Arsenal or Atletico Madrid,

00:43so all very good teams, but what I do agree with Lewis Henrique is that we are a team,

00:49Paris Saint-Germain are a team, and three or four others that are good enough to reach the final,

00:53but because it's only two games, luck and bad luck can be decisive as well,

00:59so it's difficult to say, but both teams are good enough to reach the final, let's put it that way.

01:05And do you really think they have nothing to lose, or is that a bit of mind games?

01:11They have a game of football to lose, and we as well,

01:16so I do think they've been in this stage of the tournament for many years now,

01:23I think last season they reached the semi-final,

01:25we were not even at this stage last season in the Champions League,

01:29and the season before this was the round where we were knocked out.

01:32So, yeah, these teams normally are going quite far into Europe.

01:43Yeah, that's it.

01:44If you are to see it through, what difference do you need to see from the first leg?

01:53I wasn't surprised at all about their performance, they've impressed me a lot.

01:59Before we played that game I watched many games of them because we had a bit more time than normally,

02:04and I was really impressed by the intensity they play at, the team cohesion,

02:09the rotations in the midfield, they are such a complete team,

02:14such a well-managed team, and I think we've experienced this last Wednesday.

02:23Some people said we play poor, I don't agree, I think they played tremendously well,

02:29I don't think we faced a team this season that combined that much quality with that much intensity,

02:35but I do think we can do better.

02:38I'm not saying we play poor or not good at all,

02:41but we are a better team than we were last week,

02:46and that's something we have to prove tomorrow with the help of our fans.

02:51Boris.

02:58Two questions, really.

03:00There was some suggestion that PSG were surprised at the level of Liverpool last week,

03:06in terms of you weren't very good, do you have any comments on that,

03:10and do you think you'll have to play the best game of the season to get through tomorrow?

03:16No, I think what you mean is that some of them have said

03:20that Arsenal and Bayern Munich were better than us,

03:23and that's what I've heard.

03:27I think that has to do with the fact that PSG improved a lot in these two or three months,

03:33and that they play away at Arsenal and away at Bayern Munich in these two games.

03:37And I saw both of those games, I just said I watched a lot of games, I saw those too as well.

03:43They've improved and they've changed.

03:46At Arsenal away they were much lower, weighting much more,

03:49and now they just press all over the pitch and take the risk of one-v-one constantly.

03:54So they've improved, they've changed, and it's up to them how they felt.

04:02I cannot influence what they felt, I don't even know if it's true or not.

04:09But I'm hoping that they have a different opinion after tomorrow night.

04:14And do you think they'll have to give their best performance?

04:18Yeah, I do think so, because this is the most complete team we've faced so far.

04:25And what I mean by complete is, OK, we've faced Arsenal and City,

04:30and it's not that there are big margins,

04:33but the intensity they play that with, combined with the quality they have,

04:37let's be honest, we are talking here about probably the richest club,

04:40or maybe there's one richer club a bit further ahead.

04:45So they have so much quality, and a great, great manager,

04:50because he lets the team play in a way that it's not easy to play against this team,

04:55and he brings the best out of every player, and he brings incredible work rate in the team.

05:00So that's why I think we have to be at our best tomorrow.

05:04For us, for example, we didn't have ball possession at all.

05:08City away, the other richest club in the world, together with Paris Saint-Germain.

05:15And at home we had a completely different performance against City than we had away.

05:27I loved that, do you think the players get extra motivation when they hear comments

05:32that maybe the opposition doesn't think they're as good as they thought?

05:36No, I don't know. I don't think anyone needs motivation,

05:40not their players, not our players.

05:42If you play at Anfield in a knock-out stage with two of the better teams in Europe,

05:47I think there are three, four or five incredible teams in Europe at the moment,

05:51and Paris Saint-Germain is one of them and we are one of them.

05:54So I don't think anyone needs any kind of motivation,

05:57not our fans, not our players, not their players, not the staff.

06:01I'm looking forward to a game like this and everyone wants to be at their best,

06:05if you play the best.

06:11Hi, Arne, from Caliente TV Mexico.

06:14Would you say that this match is the most important of the season for you?

06:19Yeah, because it's the next one.

06:21Why?

06:24Because it's the next one, and the next one is always the most important one.

06:32You've obviously got the title race going on,

06:36you've got this game in the second leg,

06:38your first knock-out one here at Anfield as well in the Champions League,

06:41you've got a cup final at the weekend.

06:43Is weeks like this, they might bring pressure,

06:45but is this why you wanted to be Liverpool manager?

06:50Not particularly because it is a week,

06:52there are many reasons why I wanted to be the Liverpool manager.

06:54First of all, because of the history of this club,

06:56second of all, the quality of the players I work with,

06:58and third of all, because you would expect us to be in these kind of moments

07:02in a season for Liverpool.

07:05So you want to compete for every trophy,

07:08and when you join this club you expect to do so.

07:11So, yeah, it's a nice part of the season,

07:14it doesn't give us extra pressure,

07:16because at this club if you're a player or a manager

07:18you know there's pressure every single day.

07:21And that's also what we like,

07:23otherwise we wouldn't be in this environment.

07:27Mauro de Bach.

07:30Hi, Arne.

07:32Luis Enrique said his team need the ball in order to execute their game plan,

07:36and retaining possession was probably one of the areas

07:38Liverpool could improve from the first leg.

07:41How much is the ability to regain and retain possession

07:44going to factor into your game plan,

07:46and maybe even team selection for this game tomorrow?

07:50Of course we're hoping we'll have more of the ball than we had last week,

07:54but again, if you saw them playing,

07:57they are very intense when they don't have the ball,

08:01which led to them creating a few chances as well,

08:05because they took the ball away from us when we had build-up,

08:08and that led to a few chances.

08:10But in the 87th minute, when the ball was at Alisson,

08:14they moved forward with a lot of players,

08:16we played it long and they were open,

08:18where we could score our goal.

08:20And when I watched the game back, I saw many moments

08:24that if a few of our players would have done better,

08:27that could have led to us creating chances.

08:30I also know from my experience, because normally my team is doing

08:33what the manager is doing, that every other manager always says,

08:36yeah, we could have done better in these transition moments,

08:38but the thing is, they did exhaust us a bit more than I wanted,

08:43with them constantly pressing us.

08:46If you don't get the ball, sometimes you're a bit too tired

08:51to make the perfect execution, and that's why it would be useful

08:54for us to have the ball a bit more.

08:57And if we have the ball a bit more, hopefully the game opens up

09:03also a bit more for us.

09:05We know we can do better than last week,

09:07but I don't agree with people that said we had a poor performance,

09:11because I do feel that you don't give the right credits to the team

09:15that deserves those credits, and that's what Paris Saint-Germain

09:17deserved last week.

09:19They were incredible last week.

09:30Ten years ago you were assistant manager at Cumbria-Leovard,

09:34and ten years ago Luis Henrique won the Champions League.

09:37It's quite a difference.

09:39How do you look at Luis Henrique, and is there anything you taught

09:41at Cumbria that you still use today?

09:44Oh, probably yes.

09:47Some exercises we do are still the same as ten years ago,

09:51but in football, football evolves, so as a manager you need to evolve as well.

09:56I've enjoyed watching the Luis Henrique team of Barcelona,

10:00and I'm enjoying watching it if they don't play against us again as well.

10:06So, actually quite similar.

10:10Back then he had Xavi and Iniesta,

10:12now he has Fedin and Joao Neves, also not the biggest ones,

10:16but so versatile and so quick, and lightning-fast players up front,

10:21and full-backs that like to attack.

10:24Maybe the biggest difference between his Barcelona team and this team

10:28is that they even rotate more.

10:30They were a bit more fixed in positions back then,

10:33and now their midfielders just keep on rotating and keep on running.

10:38It makes it an even more difficult team to play.

10:41Are you the same as during your time at Cumbria?

10:44Sorry?

10:45Are you the same as a person compared to your time at Cumbria?

10:48I hope so, as a person.

10:50I'm a manager, I hope I improved a bit,

10:52but I hope I'm still the same person as I was back then.

10:55And I think it is like this.

11:01Hi, this is the first time you've had a lead to defend.

11:05Do you see it that way?

11:09What balance is there between defending and still attacking

11:13in terms of the approach you have to take?

11:15Yeah, it's also only the second time we are facing two games.

11:20So is there a difference? No.

11:22We try to play every game, try to win.

11:24That's also what we tried to do last week,

11:26it wasn't our intention to be so low all the time.

11:29We wanted to have a different game than we played over there,

11:33but sometimes the other team, with the help of their fans,

11:36or they are...

11:38We both saw what happened, so tomorrow we want to play a different game,

11:42but our intention is always the same,

11:44we're not going to go for a draw,

11:46we just want to win every single game

11:48and we want to have the ball as much as we can.

11:50At City away that wasn't the situation,

11:53at PSG it wasn't the situation.

11:55We do take confidence from our home game against City,

11:58where we did have the ball much more,

12:00and it was much more of an equal game

12:03than it was the away game at City.

12:06And, of course, everybody is writing about 27 shots,

12:10and that's also what I saw, but if you put all 27 shots in a row,

12:14it's not that all 27 were amazing saves of Alisson,

12:18he had two or three incredible saves,

12:21but most of their shots were from outside the 18-yard box.

12:25Last couple, Lewis, then the gentleman in the green jumper.

12:29Hi, Arno, you're a very calm man most of the time anyway,

12:34and always talking about the next game, next game,

12:38but in a week like this you must allow yourself to dream a little bit

12:42about getting to the final of this competition or lifting trophies.

12:46No, in a week like this you don't dream at all,

12:49you have to work really, really hard to prepare the team in the best possible way,

12:55and that's what I try to do for every single game.

12:58But if you had a game like we had last week,

13:01you feel like, can I even go to sleep or do I have to watch even more?

13:08So, no, I don't dream at all at the moment about this week,

13:12we are just very focused on what we need to do tomorrow,

13:16and the week started off in terms of a result really well on Saturday,

13:22beating Southampton, and now we are looking forward to tomorrow,

13:26because I think everyone looks forward to a game of football like this,

13:30at Anfield, two great teams playing against each other.

13:35And just quickly, is Cody fit to be in the squad tomorrow?

13:38Yeah, he will be in the squad, he trained today for the first time.

13:45Hi, coach, Xavier Bonferron from Radio France.

13:48You told us that you were impressed by this PSG,

13:52even though you scored a goal in the first game, do you think it's 50-50 tomorrow?

14:00Yeah, maybe I do, yeah.

14:04The result was ours, the performance was for them.

14:09I think both teams have shown in the last 15, 20, 25 games

14:13that they can score goals from everywhere.

14:17So, yes, we are 1-0 up, and that gives us confidence,

14:22it will give them confidence the way they've played, their performance.

14:27So, yeah, maybe 50-50 is a fair way of looking at it.

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