Arne Slot believes Liverpool must produce their best performance of the season to finish off “a complete” Paris Saint-Germain team that gave him sleepless nights after .

Liverpool take a 1-0 lead into the last-16 second leg at Anfield but Slot rates the tie at “50-50” on the evidence of PSG’s display at Parc des Princes. “The result was ours, the performance was for them,” he said.

Luis Enrique, the PSG head coach, insisted the winner of the tie would reach the  final in Munich on 31 May. But despite the high stakes, a 15-point lead in the Premier League and a Carabao Cup final to come against Newcastle on Sunday, Slot claimed he could not dream of potential silverware given PSG’s dominance on home soil last Wednesday.

“In a week like this I do not dream at all,” the Liverpool head coach said. “I just know I have to work really, really hard to prepare the team in the best possible way.

“If you have a game like we did last week you feel: ‘Can I even go to sleep at all or do I have to watch even more?’ So, no, I do not dream at all about this week. It started very well in terms of . Now we are just looking forward to a game like this, at Anfield, with two great teams playing each other.”

Slot, who has Cody Gakpo back from injury, admitted Liverpool would have to find another level in an already outstanding campaign to overcome the French champions. He claimed  in December should give the six-time European champions confidence.



“Yes, I do think so \ because PSG are the most complete team we have faced so far. What I mean by complete is, OK, we have faced Arsenal and City and they are not big margins, but the intensity they played at combined with the quality they have and they are one of the richest clubs. Maybe there is one club a bit further ahead.

“They have so much quality and a great manager who has the team playing in a way that is not easy to play against. He brings the best out of every player and brings out an incredible work-rate. We have to be at our best. But we didn’t have ball possession at City away – the other richest club in the world together with  – and at home we had a completely different performance against City.”

Reports from the PSG dressing room have claimed Luis Enrique’s players felt Arsenal and Bayern Munich were tougher opponents in the Champions League group than Liverpool. Slot did not rise to the bait, insisting PSG have changed and improved since the group phase, but he denied the Premier League leaders were poor in Paris.

  
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