Liverpool are gearing up for a pivotal encounter with Galatasaray in the Champions League on Wednesday. The Reds fell to a 1-0 loss in the first leg of their round of 16 fixture, leaving Arne Slot's side facing a significant task to advance to the quarter-finals.
Liverpool will be hoping to harness the Anfield atmosphere against the Turkish giants, though the Reds were jeered in their most recent home match against Tottenham Hotspur. The Reds endured a frustrating 1-1 stalemate with Spurs, further damaging their prospects of securing a top-four finish.
Slot's attention now shifts back to the Champions League as he attempts to revive Liverpool's campaign. The Dutch manager will be hoping his side can end the pattern against Galatasaray and avoid repeating previous errors.
Meanwhile, Liverpool midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai has expressed the squad's worries about potentially failing to qualify for the Champions League next season. Here, Echo Sport looks at some of the stories surrounding the Reds.
Slot was left frustrated by familiar shortcomings as his team squandered a chance against Spurs. While the Reds moved to within two points of Aston Villa in fourth, the Liverpool manager acknowledged that the team may come up short of their targets if they cannot address some of their persistent problems.
"Of course it is damaging but how many times has this been damaging for us (this season)?" he said. "We don't help ourselves at all. It is so many times this season we have created much more xG or chances than the amount of goals we score.
"Usually in the Premier League you see a lot of teams outperforming their xG but that definitely is not what we are doing. Then the game stays tight until the end and we struggle to keep clean sheets.
"We haven't had as many clean sheets as you would want if you want to go higher up in the table. That's a bad combination for picking up the amount of points we want to pick up."
Szoboszlai has shared that the Liverpool squad has already held talks reiterating the importance of securing a Champions League place. The midfielder also expressed his worries about the Anfield atmosphere ahead of their crucial fixture against Galatasaray.
"We had already a couple of weeks ago a talk between each other saying: 'Guys we don't have such a lot of time to do this right so we have to wake up and start to go in a way that we want to play Champions League next season'," Szoboszlai explained.
"We have Galatasaray on Wednesday and that will be a tough game because we felt it there. I don't think it helps us also that after 80 minutes people start to go home, it doesn't help us at all. Stick with us.
"Everyone is noticing that and when we concede a goal still people are leaving the stadium – you don't leave when we score. I understand the frustration but we need them, we need everybody, and that's the most important."
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Liverpool have reached the UEFA Champions League round of 16 where they face Galatasaray on March 18. Fans can watch the game on the TNT Sports Prime Video channel.
