Interview'It's exciting for us' - Arne Slot on the challenge ahead of Liverpool
The Reds return to action following the March international break with an Emirates FA Cup quarter-final against Manchester City on Saturday lunchtime.
Liverpool are also set for a two-legged meeting with Paris Saint-Germain in the last eight of the Champions League, while Premier League fixtures in the form of a home clash with Fulham and a Merseyside derby trip to Everton follow.
Speaking to Liverpoolfc.com about the upcoming matches, Slot gave his thoughts on the tests his squad will face and their aims for the rest of the 2025-26 campaign.
Read what the head coach had to say below…
On how he is feeling with a busy few weeks of games ahead...
Excited. This is what we worked for throughout the season, to be involved in games like this. Of course, we probably played the toughest opponents you can face as well in the FA Cup as in the Champions League, but you always know if you end up in the quarter-finals that these are teams you can face. It's exciting for us. I think it's also for them challenging to play Liverpool. As we know, we played Paris Saint-Germain last season in the Round of 16, now in the quarter-finals and both of these games were a joy to watch. I watched them back - both of them - I liked the one at Anfield a little bit more than the one in Paris, although we won in Paris and lost at Anfield.
But [we’re] really looking forward to it. We've shown so many times this season that we can be a very good team. Unfortunately, we've also shown this season a few times that we look vulnerable, and we have to get the best out of ourselves as we've had many times this season. But that's what we need definitely again in the upcoming weeks to do what we want to do and that is to continue our run in both cups and qualify for the Champions League next season.
On facing Manchester City, PSG twice, Fulham and Everton in the next few weeks...
All beautiful fixtures to be part of. I think this is why you play football. It's to be part of these games because everybody's talking about them. When I wasn't working here, I was always looking forward to Liverpool against Man City or Man City against Liverpool. And Paris Saint-Germain for the last five, six, seven, eight, nine or 10 years they've become a big force in Europe. So, playing them now is also nice.
Then, of course, the big derby against Everton is nice and in between [we have] Fulham - a very important game as well. Unfortunately, we play Paris Saint-Germain first on Wednesday, then secondly on Tuesday. That means three games in seven days. But that is part of the end-phase of the season. Most of our players did play in the international break, but not all of them played twice for 90 minutes. I expect them to be ready for the programme we are going to face.
On what he is looking for from his team against Manchester City in the FA Cup...
First of all, I'm looking forward to the fact that in the away game it's always nice because our fans are always loud, but as has been told to me in the FA Cup, we get even more fans to help us over there. So, that's going to be something to look forward to. Our players, unfortunately most of when we had good results, the results afterwards when they weren't as we wanted them to be, that had a lot to do with players not being available then, which we saw in the last game when we played Brighton. So, during the week, we played a very good game, in my opinion, one of our best against Galatasaray.
Then three days later, we miss out on Alisson [Becker] and we miss out on Mo [Salah]. Three minutes into the game Hugo [Ekitike] needs to go off. I think it's fair to say that a few players in the second half struggled with the fact that we played 62 hours, or I don't even know exactly how long, after the Galatasaray game and another game against an intense team.
I hope and expect we can be the team that we were against Galatasaray. That's also what we need to be because City has shown one day after we played Brighton, which we all knew and which they have shown many times this season, when they won the League Cup how good of a team they are, how many good players they have and how good a manager they have. It's a very nice game to look forward to.