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.