On whether he made any tactical changes during the game…
We changed a bit the way we pressed in the second half compared to the first half. In the first half they had three or four open chances, so one-on-ones and a cut-back cross that just went over the bar. [There was the] moment they went one-on-one and the ball came back and then two or three chances in a row. In the first half it was almost a miracle that it was 0-0.
The second half, it was more due to their quality that they could create chances because all of their shots were outside of the box, but these players – I’ve said it already and our players have the same – if they get shots from 18 or 20 yards it is still half a chance because they can hit it so hard. That’s why I think you saw two teams that have dominated their leagues – them in France, us in England – playing against each other with so much quality in the game. But they were by far the better team in ball possession than us.
On Trent Alexander-Arnold’s defensive performance…
I see the same thing during the season many more times. There have been games – I think City away was one of them – where he was outplayed a few times but we didn’t concede that many big chances against City, so sometimes stats are not telling you the truth. If he goes past someone in the width of the pitch, it doesn’t tell you that he’s outplayed. The stats that do matter, I just already said a few times, are clear that Paris Saint-Germain are this season incredible in Europe and in their league. Trent, in the first half, one or two times had some difficulties but in general he defended really well, especially also in the second half.
On which team will go into the second leg with more confidence…
If you look at the result, we come away here really positive but if you look at the performance then they are two different things. I think Paris Saint-Germain take a lot of positives towards the game we are going to play in a week. But I can tell you, they’re not only going to play against us, they are also going to play against our fans – and we really need them. Not only next Tuesday, but we need our fans on Saturday against Southampton as well. Like you might know, we don’t have a winter break in England so we just keep on playing for months already and these players are definitely going to need the help of our fans to show up two times as they did in the last few months.
