Galatasaray vs Liverpool live: Champions League last 16 team news after Reds suffer Alisson injury blow | OneFootball

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Alexis Mac Allister and Arne Slot speak ahead of Champions league first leg at Galatasaray

Liverpool travel to Istanbul to face Galatasaray in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie this evening, with Arne Slot’s side hoping for a potentially vital win as they look to put one foot in the quarter-finals.

Slot has steadied the ship somewhat since the Reds’ 1-0 loss at Rams Park in the competition’s league phase in September, and while they won’t retain the Premier League title this term, Liverpool remain contenders for both the FA Cup and the Champions League as the Dutchman looks to add to his success at Anfield.

And while the Reds have produced disappointing performances against the likes of Wolves and Nottingham Forest of late, they’ll know that they have the ability to string results together and go far in this competition as they look to take a step towards the quarter-finals at the home of the Turkish league leaders.

More from Slot

Here’s more from Slot on the challenge posed by Galatasaray and playing at Rams Park:

“They have a very good team and we have a very good team. So are you happy to play against them? No, there's not one team which you prefer to play in the last 16 because they are all very good teams – including Galatasaray,” said the Dutchman.

“We've already lost against them, so that tells you how difficult of a game it is for us. The good thing now is that we play two games.

“Where in the group stage you only play away against Galatasaray. Now we also have a chance to play in front of our own fans, which will be impressive for Galatasaray,” he explained.

“These fans over here are very impressive, we've noticed that when we've played here. The good thing is we've experienced it already once now. That's maybe a positive thing,” he added.

Slot on Galatasaray

After playing them, we know them better. And now before playing them, you start to watch even more games,” said Liverpool boss Arne Slot on preparing for today’s game.

“I have a lot of respect for Galatasaray, for their manager. He's been so successful here as a player and now as a manager, won so much with this club. Recently they played Besiktas – who have one of my former players, Orkun Kokcu, who I know is a very good player as well – but they are even able to beat Besiktas with 10 men, so that tells you a lot about how the team is fighting, if that is necessary,” he explained.

“So, they have quality players that can fight and they have great fans behind them. We need to be so, so, so good tomorrow to bring a result back to Anfield and that's what we're going to try.

“Last time when we played them there was not a lot between us and them. We both got a penalty, unfortunately ours was overturned by the VAR and theirs was given.

“And in open play I think we were quite similar, a 50-50 game that we lost because of that penalty. Two very good teams playing against each other tomorrow evening,” he added.

(Getty Images)