MILNER: WE MUST DELIVER
JAMES MILNER pulled no punches as he insisted Liverpool must win a trophy this season to be bracketed with the best in the world.
The Reds veteran was responding to Porto coach Sergio Conceicao, who was gushing in his praise of the Kop squad ahead of tonight’s second leg tie. Conceicao admitted: “Liverpool give me all I like about football.
“I like the dynamics. I like the game model.
“It’s how I see football and in a lot of moments, they are the best team in the world.”
Yet Milner, who twice won the league with Manchester City but has been to three finals with Liverpool without raising a trophy, said: “You get those compliments by playing good football over a sustained period of time, so we can take that as a compliment.
“But to be the best in the world you have to win trophies.
“There are a lot of good teams left in the Champions League and it’s down for us to prove that, and hopefully win at least one trophy this season.
“There are also a lot of good teams between us and the last game of the season and we have to keep improving and playing like we are doing at the moment.
“Getting to three finals has helped a lot, and given us a lot of experience. You can see that with the way we have been able to grind out wins even when we have not been at our best.”
But boss Jurgen Klopp (above, in high spirits with his squad) joked about Conceicao’s words being a trap.
“My players are not silly they don’t misunderstand things like this – we have to play at our limit 100 per cent, and not just try to go through, because we can not underestimate the power they have,” said the German.
Klopp revealed Dejan Lovren didn’t travel because he was ill, but Joe Gomez is ready to play a part from the bench. Two of the three teams that lost their first leg by two or more goals in the last 16 of the Champions League this season managed to turn around the tie in the second leg – with Manchester United knocking out Paris SaintGermain and Juventus defeating Atletico Madrid. Porto have lost the first leg of a Champions League/European Cup knockout tie by two or more goals on six occasions – and in all six of those they have been eliminated from the competition. Liverpool have never lost a European match against Porto in their seven previous encounters (W4 D3 L0), keeping three successive clean sheets against them. Porto suffered their heaviest ever home defeat in European competition against Liverpool during last season’s Champions League, with the Anfield side winning 5-0 in a last-16 tie. Sadio Mane hit a hat-trick for the Reds at Porto’s ground in last season’s tournament; no player has ever scored two hat-tricks away from home against one club. Casillas, Corona, Pepe, Militao, Telles, Danilo, Torres, Herrera, Marega, Soares, Brahimi Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Lovren, Van Dijk, Robertson, Henderson, Fabinho, Wijnaldum, Salah, Firmino, Mane