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Liverpool’s reward for finishing first in the league phase of the Champions League is arguably the hardest draw of the Round of 16, but their captain says they’re ready for it.
Between finishing first in the league phase of the Champions League to earn a bye to the Round of 16 and sitting 13 points clear top of the Premier League table at the start of March, it’s not a stretch to suggest Liverpool have been the best side in Europe this season.
Over the past few months, though, there’s a solid case that Paris Saint-Germain are the in form club of the moment. And the Champions League draw has managed to arrange a date between the two when the Reds enter in to the tournament with the first R16 leg in Paris on Wednesday.
“It will be a very good game I expect against a team in form,” Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk said of the upcoming challenge he and his teammates will face. “It will be difficult but these are the games you want to compete in and I am really looking forward to it.
“Before that we’ve had time with our family, a chance to reflect on the last couple of weeks, and now we look ahead to what is coming. It goes up a level now. We are in the knockout stages and there are two games to get through and we want to be so good we deserve to go through.”
Having not played over the weekend due to their shock FA Cup exit, Liverpool players will have had an unusual full week without a match—and the chance to have had a few days away from football entirely—to rest and recover for PSG and the final stretch.
“You have to fight for it, you have to do everything in your power to win the game,” Van Dijk added. “That is what we are going to try and do but we are definitely aware of them. In Paris and then back here, these are the nights you want to perform in and you want to show the whole world.”
