Sterling fight heaven after my Hull hell

ANDY ROBERTSON will relish the change in his footballing fortunes tonight – while trying to keep Raheem Sterling on a tight leash again.

This time last season the Scotland left-back was fighting a losing relegation battle with Hull. Now he is facing champions-elect Manchester City for Liverpool in the Champions League last eight – and he knows which he prefers.

He said: “I’d rather be playing in this game than matches when we were battling for our lives last season. That goes without saying.

“When you are fighting relegation there is so much riding on it – dropping down a league, people losing their jobs, contracts and stuff like that.

“In these games it is all for benefit – you are going to be one of the four teams left in the Champions League. It is a big difference. It’s a massive game. We have the potential to be in semi-final.

“These are the games when you are a young kid, growing up and watching, that you want to play in. I feel lucky to be playing on such a big stage in a famous stadium.

“You want to use that and put in a good performance. I am sure the City players feel the same. We are all looking forward to it.”

Liverpool are the only team to have beaten City in the Premier League this season and Robertson believes they can use the thrilling 4-3 win in January – when he was one of their stand-out players – to their advantage tonight. And he hopes to make it another miserable return for former Liverpool player Sterling, who was taken off in the league game.

“I think that was our most complete display of the season,” he added. “It was tough [against Sterling]. I would say I got the better of him but it was no easy task. I never got forward as much as I wanted and that is credit to him and his work rate, but I managed to do my defensive duties. I will be looking to do that again.

“Raheem has been incredible this season. He is on his way to being a world class player. You’d have to ask him about the last game, but as a team we don’t want to let him or any of their boys settle.”