Rio Ngumoha could start for Liverpool against PSG (Image: Getty)
Arne Slot believes Rio Ngumoha has the maturity to handle the magnitude of the occasion as Liverpool welcome Paris Saint-Germain for a place in the Champions League semi-finals. Ngumoha netted his second goal of the campaign on Saturday as the Reds defeated Fulham 2-0 at Anfield, and demands to deploy the exciting winger more frequently have been intensifying for several weeks.
Liverpool entertain European champions PSG on Tuesday evening facing a 2-0 deficit from the opening leg in Paris last week, and Slot believes Ngumoha, who doesn’t celebrate his 18th birthday until August, won’t be fazed against the reigning holders. The Dutchman explained: “Yeah I think he can [cope with this game], first of all because of personality, he doesn’t get distracted that soon. I think since he’s been [a senior], everyone who knows his history there is expectation around him for many years.
“He has always been able to focus on football to become better, to become stronger and to be ready at 16 years of age, to score his first goal and at 17 to have multiple starts for the first-team of Liverpool.
“The second thing is his quality, he has shown he is able, at the highest level – the Premier League and Champions League – to be able to take one v ones on and make it difficult for the defenders he is facing.
“He has done a very good job in managing what comes to him now, but it also helps to have so many experienced players around him, which he does in the dressing room.”
Ngumoha etched his name into the record books as the youngest goalscorer in the club’s history when he struck a dramatic 100th-minute winner against Newcastle in late August, at just 16 years and 361 days old. And Slot insists the entire Liverpool team are capable of doing “special things” and mounting a memorable comeback against the reigning champions of Europe.
Goals from Desire Doue and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia have handed PSG a commanding advantage in the quarter-final tie ahead of the second leg on Merseyside.
Arne Slot was speaking at his pre-match press conference (Image: Getty)
While Slot concedes his squad must improve markedly on their display in the French capital last week, he remains convinced that another iconic European night at Anfield is well within reach. “Yes there is a belief we can do special things tomorrow,” Slot said.
“But we also need to be very, very, very special tomorrow to achieve that as we are playing against the champions of Europe. That makes the task more complicated but not impossible. [The fans will be] just as important as our performance, so I think we have to better much, much better than we were last week.
“And their experienced players who experienced Anfield last year, they think that they know what is coming up, so I can only hope our fans can find an extra gear, compared to last season.
“Which I will argue if that is possible because the atmosphere last season was unbelievable. But I think our fans up for it to make it even louder, which is needed.
“Because then their players get what they don’t expect, which is first of all a better performance – which I do think they will expect, by the way, because it was hardly possible to play at the same level again – and our fans, I think I can trust them if they are even louder than last season.”
Slot added: “Where do I get belief from? You want one example, two, 10 or 200? In first 35 minutes at the Etihad, did you expect us to be 4-0 down 20 minutes later?
“Would you expect us, after losing 1-0 to Galatasaray, to then, in a different game, where we could have scored eight or nine at home? So the amount of times we have shown we can be much better than we were against PSG, that is clear.
“Even on Saturday, against Fulham, it showed how important a goal can be to change momentum. We were the best team on the pitch and then for 10 minutes it went more equal and we scored a goal and then 10 minutes later a second.
“A goal can change momentum, which happened in a negative way at the Etihad in a positive way on Saturday against Fulham at Anfield.”