Former Manchester United star turned pundit Rio Ferdinand has backed Liverpool to overturn the first-leg deficit and beat Atlético Madrid at Anfield on Wednesday night, ensuring they qualify for the last eight of the Champions League.
The Reds were edged out by a single Saúl Ñíguez goal in Madrid in February and now must win against Los Rojiblancos to stay in the competition.
With the Merseyside club having made the final in the previous two seasons, Ferdinand expects that they will have enough to progress into the quarter-finals with a strong performance at home, backed by a noisy home crowd.
He told BT Sport: “I can’t wait. It will be a great atmosphere.
“The experience of last season [beating Barcelona] and the atmosphere that Anfield creates, you can’t bet against Liverpool. They’re a team that know how to win. They can win ugly, they can pull it back and drag a result back.
“They have the experience last season of coming back from a position where everybody thought they were out. I think they have a huge, huge chance.”
Manager Jürgen Klopp also talked this week of how the Reds will have an advantage playing at home, and believes they will have a major part to play on Wednesday evening.
The German said: “Not a lot of the Atletico players have played at Anfield before and that is what we want to use. Our crowd will be our advantage and we have to use it with the performance on the pitch.
"It has to be exceptional because they defend deep and have counter-attack threat. Each player can be dangerous. I have the highest respect for them but there are always ways and we have to find them tomorrow night.
“We have to show we have really learned from the first game.”
With the crucial absence of goalkeeper Alisson, it will be a huge task for Liverpool to perform well both defensively to keep out the likes of Atléti forwards Diego Costa and João Félix from scoring, while also needing a big performance from attacking stars Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mané.
Source : 90min